


You Will Care For Me

by MadnessJones



Series: The Sigma Saga [1]
Category: Transformers Generation One
Genre: Adoption, Autobot - Freeform, Cassettes, Comfort, Cute, Cybertron, Decepticon, Drama, Earth, Family, Femme, Gen, General, Hiding, Lambo - Freeform, Love, Mystery, Pain, Quiet, Rescue, Sad, Seeker, Seekers, Sisters, Spark, Sparklings, Suspense, Twins, Vector Sigma - Freeform, adopt, father - Freeform, gladiator, outcast, outlier, secret, sigma - Freeform, silent, sparkling
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-04
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-10-03 22:59:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 13
Words: 37,934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17293025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MadnessJones/pseuds/MadnessJones
Summary: The Autobots find a dead shuttle-former and her passengers, four sparklings barely clinging to life. We all know how the story goes, right? Adoptions and happily ever after. Well, nobody told that to Sunstreaker, who is now saddled with a boring sparkling and her three annoying cassettes. (Part 1 of the Sigma Saga. No Pairings).





	1. The Discovery

**Author's Note:**

> This story is kind of old, but I still feel really close to it. Probably because I'm still writing in the AU that this fic started. "You Will Care For Me" is a dramatic tale of four former Decepticon sparklings learning to live again after being adopted by the Autobots, and is the first part of a universe that has three completed works and one still in progress. I will probably only post a few chapters a day over the course of several days, just so nobody feels overwhelmed. I hope you enjoy the story, and thank you for checking it out :)

**Chapter 1**

**The Discovery**

This was a bittersweet mission. The Autobots rolled along the road without saying anything to one another. Nothing needed to be said. On the positive side, there were no Decepticons waiting to ambush them this time. On the negative side, they were going to collect a fallen comrade.

They didn't know the designation of this deceased Autobot, but it didn't matter. In the end it was still an Autobot. Skyfire had been especially upset about this discovery due to the details of their macabre find.

It all started when human archaeologists were digging around a sacred burial site of ancient warriors of Papua New Guinea. They had found several interesting things, but one man in particular found a giant metal construct and was immediately flabbergasted by such an odd occurrence. They thought it might be an alien space ship, and in a roundabout sort of way, it was.

It had turned out to be the dead gray shell of a Cybertronian. Further analysis by the scientists showed that the body had been there for possibly 4-7 million years! The insignia showed that it had been an Autobot. The bot was of a similar design as Skyfire; a Cybertronian shuttle. It was a femme, but obviously hadn't been attractive even in life. Pictures told the Autobots that much, but Perceptor and Ratchet wanted to examine the body before they gave it a proper send-off in the depths of space.

They finally arrived and were greeted by a team of humans digging up surrounding areas around the body. The Autobot corpse was surrounded by police tape to prevent anyone from messing with it before the Autobots got there to retrieve it.

"Welcome, Prime! Welcome!" An old pale man with a tiny mustache greeted the red and blue leader of the Autobots, "We have been expecting you. I am Dr. Fritz, and I was the one that discovered the alien. Well, alien to us. I'm sure you'll know exactly what it is! You may even know  _who_  it is!"

The little man was very excited to show the Autobots his discovery, as well as to tell them about the many things his team had uncovered. It felt wrong somehow for one to show so much enthusiasm when a femme was lying dead just a few mechano-meters away from them. Still, Optimus knew the human meant no harm. To him it was just another curiosity; like the dead human remains at this same dig sight.

Ratchet and Bluestreak were the first ones to arrive at the spot where the dead femme lay. The elements had taken their toll on the shell. It was covered in moss and beginning to rust. Still, her frame was holding up despite the eons it had been there. She was still in shuttle mode, but had been halfway through transformation when she died. Her helm was visible; her black dead optics staring at nothing and mouth open in a silent scream.

Bluestreak shuddered at the sight of the poor unfortunate femme. Ratchet didn't have time to think about the horror of the situation, however. He needed to take readings of the femme to see how long she had been dead and if they could determine who she was in life. For all he knew she could've worked with Elita One and her group.

Perceptor showed up in that moment and began to scan the body for working parts, interior composition, and anything else that might be necessary to know about. Ratchet was glad Perceptor was there. Bluestreak was too busy staring like a lost turbo rat to be of any use to him. Optimus arrived at their side soon after.

"Ratchet," Optimus addressed his medic when he got there, "Do you believe you will be able to determine cause of death?"

"I don't know," Ratchet replied, "I'll do my best."

For several minutes the four Autobots milled around and scanned the body of the fallen femme. Skyfire had been too upset to look at the corpse. He doubted he would know her, but the idea of seeing another shuttle in that condition sickened him. He wasn't like the other Autobots. He wasn't used to war. He had been frozen on this planet long before the war even started, and since there had been no casualties on earth for as long as they'd been there Skyfire never had to come to terms with that grim reality.

Finally, after a few minutes of scanning her measurements and areas of damage, Perceptor shouted "Ratchet! Come quick! I've found something!"

Ratchet raced over to where Perceptor was pointing and stopped in front of the door hatch on the femme's side. Ratchet didn't know what was so special about that, but he made no snide remarks and hoped Perceptor would get to the point before he lost his patience. Perceptor tended to be long-winded when he explained things.

"Ratchet...You're not going to believe this!" Perceptor breathed incredulously, "My scans are picking up four spark signatures!"

" _Four_?" Ratchet gasped, "But there is only one body, and it is just a body. There is no spark signal to be had."

"But my scans show four very faint signals, and they are coming from inside the dead femme!" Perceptor insisted.

"Great Cybertron!" Ratchet breathed incredulously.

Wasting no more time, Ratchet took a laser scalpel to the door of the deceased femme and carefully cut it away. Ratchet and Perceptor then pried the steel away so that they could walk inside the dark shell of the fallen Autobot. Bluestreak looked like he was going to be sick, but he still followed them anyway. He didn't want to be alone in such a foreboding atmosphere.

Perceptor turned on a light so that they could see inside. The femme was almost as spacious as Skyfire, but the air was decidedly stale due to rust and poor ventilation. Bluestreak wanted to purge his fuel tanks when he smelled the stench of metallic death all around her! The trio scanned the surrounding area for any signs of life. Perceptor turned to the terminal that controlled her navigation and found a recording device that acted as the black box for the shuttle femme.

Meanwhile Ratchet had turned on his own light and was scanning the floor of the shuttle. Everything was in disarray! It was obvious that she had suffered a horrible crash landing. It was too soon to tell, but Ratchet theorized that the crash was likely what killed the femme in the first place. Bluestreak followed closely behind Ratchet; leaving Perceptor to his work decoding the record box.

Bluestreak was too busy looking ahead at Ratchet and all around the room to see where he was going. He suddenly tripped! When Bluestreak looked down to see what had caused him to fall on his aft, he screamed an ear piercing scream!

" **AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH**!"

"Bluestreak, what the slag is your problem?!" Ratchet snapped irritably.

Ratchet looked down at what Bluestreak was looking at, and realized this was what they were looking for!

There were four bodies intertwined in a pile of connected parts and malfunctioning circuits! Discovering four bodies was bad enough, but when Ratchet saw what they were, his spark broke.

They were sparklings! Four innocent sparkling femmes were lying on the ground in a heap of mangled torture! They had likely tried to hold onto each other during the crash and instead were knocked offline as their systems were damaged one by one. He could make out one seeker femme, and one with gold paint, but the rest of the pile was too close together to make out anything more.

"Is this where the spark signatures came from?" Bluestreak asked; bringing Ratchet back to reality.

Ratchet's optics went wide as he realized he needed to scan the pile of bodies in front of him! He took out his scanner and deftly ran it over every chassis to find their spark chambers. Sure enough, they were all still alive, but barely.

"Perceptor!" Ratchet yelled at his microscope colleague, "Subspace anything you want to examine! I need you to help us carry these sparklings out of here!"

"Sparklings? My word!" Perceptor exclaimed as he quickly got out of the chair and went to help his friends.

Ratchet had trouble getting their limbs apart. He needed the sparklings to separate from each other so they could be carried away, but it was proving difficult. They were tangled together very tightly, and prying them apart was like trying to unravel a knot made of iron! Bluestreak put aside his apprehension to help Ratchet with the task, and soon they had the four little femmes freed!

Once they were out of the knot, the three Autobots grabbed the little sparklings and quickly ran outside with them! Perceptor carried the seekerlet, Ratchet carried two more, and Bluestreak brought up the rear carrying the little gold one.

When they made it outside Optimus Prime was speaking with Skyfire and Prowl about their mission. They were to retrieve the femme's body for a proper send-off, but Ratchet knew that would have to wait. He needed to inform Prime of their new passengers…

* * *

The ride in Skyfire had been tense. Ratchet worked feverishly to stabilize the little patients, but their systems had been degrading for millions of years and would likely require extensive surgeries to correct the damages. Perceptor assisted him, but there wasn't a lot either of them could do until they made it back to the Ark.

This had been a simple salvage mission. They were supposed to retrieve a body and nothing more! Now everything was so complicated! Ratchet knew it would break his spark to lose even one of these little patients, but the threat of losing all of them was a very real possibility. Sparklings weren't made for long-term stasis.

Seeing them in the full light of day showed him another complication...Their frame types.

The seeker would be difficult to treat because the Autobots didn't have many seekers. Most seekers were Decepticons, and Ratchet didn't have a lot of information on how to treat a seeker's injuries; let alone how to treat a seeker sparkling! Her wings were bent, and if she woke up that would be very painful. Her head also had curious blades that almost looked like a cross between a pair of boomerangs and humans pigtails. Her dark blue, black, and white body looked surprisingly fragile considering she would someday grow up to be a war make. There were hairline cracks all over her body! It looked like if one even touched her she would break!

Ratchet made his way to the next patient. This one was white with black thighs and black upper arms. She had a black screen in the middle of her chest and two separate compartments on either hip. He scanned her and found three more half-sparks inside her left hip door! This little one was a carrier frame type, and somehow despite her young age already had cassettes in her possession! This just kept getting more and more complicated for the medic!

The next one he examined was the gold femme. Her frame type seemed fairly standard for a femme discounting her long fingernails and gold paint. She looked like a femme version of the Academy Award! Her spark seemed to be the closest to offlining. If she pulled through it would be a miracle!

The last one was another standard femme except for one obvious difference...She had no mouth! This one was blue-grey with a black helmet lining her face and a black chassis, and she had a mostly normal faceplate except for the fact her mouth was missing. Ratchet assumed she took in energon from a port in the front or back of the chassis (ex: Shockwave Or Wheeljack), but he couldn't find the opening to the fuel tank! If he couldn't feed her she would starve to death!

In total Ratchet would have seven patients to work on when they made it back to the Ark; 4 standard sparklings and 3 cassettes. He couldn't even hope to examine the cassettes until he had the proper equipment to extract them without harming the little white carrier.

Ratchet groaned when he looked at them. He hadn't seen sparklings in ages, and he certainly didn't want to lose these! Still, he didn't know if their sparks had degraded beyond salvaging or not. He didn't know if he could save them, but he knew he would try with every fiber of his being!


	2. Tearjerker

**Chapter 2**

**Tearjerker**

When they made it back to Autobot Headquarters the first thing Ratchet did was rush to the medbay! Perceptor, Bluestreak, First Aid, and Hound rushed in after him with the gurneys that contained his young patients! Time was of the essence if they were going to pull through!

Ratchet and First Aid started working on the critically injured femmes, and soon Hoist and Swoop joined them. Ratchet worked with the seekerling, Swoop worked on the blue-grey and black femme, First Aid tended to the golden femme, and Hoist took care of the carrier. Hoist had to gingerly open the left door so he could remove the cassettes. He was surprised to find the cassettes inside were already adults!

""Hey, you Ratchet!" Swoop called, "Her sparkling has no mouth!"

"Yes, I know!" Ratchet snapped as he worked on the delicate wings of his patient.

"But how me Swoop going to get energon into her sparkling?" Swoop asked.

"Just look for an intravenous port," Ratchet said without looking away from his work, "I'm sure there should be one near the wrist."

"Do you require assistance, Swoop?" Hoist asked, "My patient seems to be stable for the moment."

"No. Me Swoop find energon tube," Swoop said as he lifted a small pink tube from the right wrist of the sparkling, "It tube going into funny holes on her sparkling's hand."

" _What_?" Ratchet exclaimed, hoping he wasn't hearing what he thought he was hearing, "You don't mean-?"

Ratchet ran to the trainee's side at once, and saw with his own optics that the young femme did indeed have "funny holes" in her hands. They were silver-lined ports that almost looked like washers. There were three on each hand, and each one was connected to an energon port that led to the spark chamber.

"Holy Cybertron!" Ratchet breathed in horror, "She's an energon leech!"

"What that?" Swoop asked obliviously.

"Energon leaching is a very rare sigma ability, or rather sigma  _disability_  depending on your viewpoint," Ratchet explained, "An energon leech can't drink energon like a normal mech. They must siphon it from the living bodies of other Cybertronians. This vampiristic behavior has made their type the targets of violence on Cybertron since before the Golden Age. I honestly didn't think there were any left…"

"So...Her sparkling is vampire?" Swoop asked nervously.

"Not exactly," Ratchet sighed, "For one thing she isn't dead. She's just a normal sparkling with a strange ability."

" _Ahh_!" First Aid yelped in pain from his station, "I can't move my hand!"

"Oh,  _now_  what?" Ratchet groused.

When Ratchet went to check on First Aid he had a golden fingernail in his hand and was trying to use a pair of tweezers to get it out of the area where the nail dug in and was fizzing pink and yellow. First Aid looked ready to cry!

"What happened?" Ratchet demanded to know.

"Sorry to bother you, sir!" First Aid apologized as he pulled the offending nail out of his hand, "I think the gold sparkling has a sigma ability, too. Her fingernails eject and cause temporary paralysis. At least, I hope it's temporary…"

Ratchet muttered something unintelligible under his breath and stomped back to where he left his own patient. The seekerling's condition had not changed, and her face looked no less pained. Ratchet began to remove the chassis armor in an attempt to survey the damage. When he did, he was in for yet another shock.

"Oh, you are  _kidding_  me!" Ratchet snapped in frustration as he warily eyed the offending piece of machinery just below the spark chamber, "Ratchet to Optimus Prime! Come in, Prime!"

/Prime here,/ Optimus answer on the comm link.

"Optimus! We have a bomb! Repeat, we have a bomb!"

* * *

Perceptor, meanwhile, was in his lab preparing the black box to play its last recorded logs. There were four from the day of the shuttle femme's final flight. Blaster was with him to scan for any residual sounds that might give them a clue as to where this femme came from and what caused her to crash. That was, assuming, she didn't tell them over the recordings.

They readied the first message. The voice on the other end was deep and had a sepulchral quality to it, but it was still obviously feminine.

" _This is Tearjerker calling any Autobots in the area…_ " the static-filled recording played out,  _"...I humbly request a response if there are any Autobots in the area...Are there any Autobots in the area? … Please. Are there any Autobots in the area? I have four sparklings on board. Please, I just need to know where to_ go _!"_

The voice on the other end of the black box had remained composed until the very last word, when her desperation finally seeped through. The second recording was not a transmission, but rather a log.

" _This is Tearjerker stating an oral record of our journey. If anyone finds this, then I want you to know what happened. There will be conflicting reports on the bombing of the Altihex Foundling Home, but I want to set the record straight. I started working at the foundling home as a caretaker less than a vorn ago. Most of the foundlings here don't have a future beyond cannon fodder or menial labor. Then of course, there are the_ typical _enterprises built into young femmes…_ "

Perceptor and Blaster exchanged a pained and knowing look with those last cryptic words.

"... _Anyway, when the bombing happened, I was in the office arguing with one of my superiors for the rights of these young femmes. I know that's irrelevant, but if you should happen to find the sparklings in my charge, well...I beg you to spare them the fate of a pleasure consort. They deserve better than that. Anyway, when the bomb went off, I searched the compound for survivors. Of course Quantum Boom survived. I expected no less. I also found Honey Venom, Terrabyte, and Phobia. The four femmes were huddled together under a part of the collapsed roof that managed to get caught in a beam. I took them and flew off with them. I do not know where we will go, but I hope that if you find this that you are not allied with the Decepticons. These young ladies have suffered enough. Please find it in your spark to help them. I do not know if I will survive the journey. My fuel reserves are dangerously low…"_

"Hm...That transmission contains several more breems of static, but she says no more," Perceptor said after a moment.

"Play the next one. I'm not picking up anything unusual yet," Blaster ordered.

_"This is Tearjerker calling any available ships! I require assistance! My navigation has been knocked offline! I'm flying blind! Please, if anyone can hear me! Please respond quickly! There are planets in this solar system and the likelihood of crashing is 57.5% under current circumstances! Please respond! There are sparklings aboard me! I repeat, there are sparklings aboard me!"_

Perceptor wasn't the most demonstrative of mechs, so his emotions rarely showed. He only hoped they weren't showing now, because he felt like his spark was breaking when he heard that low-toned plaintive voice calling fruitlessly for help. He imagined the lifeless corpse they found in the jungle and realized this voice was all that was left of her. Her designation had been Tearjerker, and she worked at a home for orphans. The bombing that had been the turning point in her life wasn't even recorded in the history books since so many other places had likewise been destroyed by the war.

Blaster played the last recording, but the voice wasn't that of Tearjerker. It was a voice that sounded more like an adolescent girl (if the voice had been human).

" _This is shuttle captain Honey Venom transmitting in the blind guard,"_ The voice tried to sound official, but it was also clearly young _, "Is there anyone out there? We are seeking friendlies. Please respond…"_ a minute later _, "Please respond. We are unarmed and require assistance now…"_ Blaster could hear crying in the background, _"Phobia, shut up! I repeat, we are transmitting in the blind guard. Our aircraft is down on an unknown planet and we need assistance. There are 4 surviving members of the crew remaining."_

_"Tearjerker! Wake up!"_

" _Phobia shut up or I'll rip a hole in your face where your mouth should be!"_ Honey Venom snapped _, "Alright, if anyone is receiving us on this frequency, then we are going into stasis lock. Please revive us when you arrive. We promise full cooperation if you rescue us. Consider us salvage. Once again, transmitting in the blind guard and awaiting a signal. … Alright then. Come on, Sigma Sisters, huddle! We need to conserve energy so we're going into stasis. We're going to be okay…"_

The last two sentences were softer than the rest of the transmission, so it was clear that it wasn't meant to be recorded. Those soft placating words  _we're going to be okay_  were haunting to the two Autobots listening to the final desperate words of a sparkling forced to grow up before her time and comfort her friends despite her own pain and loss.

"Um, Perceptor?" Blaster asked after a moment of silence for the fallen Tearjerker, "What did that little femme mean when she said  _consider us salvage_?"

Perceptor sighed wearily. He didn't want to explain it, but he supposed Blaster should know. After all, this would have to go in their report…

"When she mentioned salvage...She was offering herself and her sisters as slaves in exchange for their rescue," Perceptor informed him somberly, "It was common among the Decepticons to claim everything on a downed ship as salvaged, including the crew. She was covering her bases in case Decepticons found them."

"Oh…" Blaster didn't know what he could say to that; it made him sick to think of what would've happened if the Decepticons had captured a group of innocent sparklings that had just lost their caretaker.

"So...The one without a mouth is named Phobia?" Blaster asked in an effort to change the subject, and Perceptor nodded, "Alright then. So which one do you think was Honey Venom?"

"If I had to guess? The gold one," Perceptor replied.

"What makes you say that?" Blaster asked; curious now.

"When Ratchet and I scanned them, the gold one seemed to be the oldest. She was probably around 5 vorns old when she was placed into stasis. Practically ready for her first upgrade. The one called Phobia is the youngest. We doubt she's even 2 vorns old yet," Perceptor explained.

"Mm," Blaster shook his head sadly as he thought of the situation.

Neither one of them knew if the younglings could be saved, but they desperately hoped so. To go from an orphanage in Altihex, one of the deadliest and most lawless neutral battlegrounds on Cybertron, to a crashed Autobot shuttle that was once their caretaker...It was more than either mech wanted to think about.

* * *

Optimus Prime showed up at the medbay and saw mechs cowered against any berth or cabinet they could get behind! They were all waiting for the bomb to go off; believing the femme had been set as some sort of Decepticon trap. Only Ratchet was brave enough to get close to the little seeker and the deadly spark bomb inside of her.

"Ratchet, have you managed to disarm the bomb yet?" Prime asked worriedly.

"No...And from the looks of it, I never will," Ratchet said distractedly as he scanned the bomb inside the seekerling's chest, "The bomb is built into the seeker, and it regenerates."

"Pardon?" Prime asked; sure he heard that wrong.

"This femme is a regenerator, otherwise known as a Cybertronian grenade," Ratchet explained, "She's rigged to explode whenever she chooses and has a blast radius of 10 feet. This number will substantially increase when she is older."

"How can she get older if she's dead?" Ironhide asked from behind a berth.

"The bomb doesn't kill the spark, and her body is designed to reassemble itself seconds after the initial explosion," Ratchet explained, "I don't believe we are in any danger, but I will still need to keep her in isolation just in case."

"That would be wise," Prime replied agreeably, "So, what of the other patients?"

"The closest one to recovery is the carrier," Ratchet reported, "She has three adult cassettes, but I don't know if they are kin to her or not. They seem to be uninjured. The carrier herself, however, has a damaged vocalizer. It was caused by prolonged strangulation, so she was likely attacked by a Decepticon soldier. The damage is old, and the only way to fix her is to replace the vocalizer. Unfortunately, I don't have any parts small enough for a sparkling, so I will have to order the part from Cybertron and hope it gets here soon. She's ready to be awakened now if you want."

That was the first bit of good news they'd had all day! One of the sparklings was going to live, and they could meet her right then if they wanted! Optimus nodded his head as a silent order to awaken the sparkling, and Ratchet carefully set the subroutine that would force the sparkling into consciousness.

The little white and black femme's system whirred to life and her optics slowly onlined as several Autobots watched and waited.

"Back up, you glitch heads!" Ratchet snapped, "We don't need to crowd the poor thing before she even knows where she is!"

The little carrier's large round optics lit up, and everyone could see then that her optics were yellow. That meant she was likely either a neutral or a member of the nobility like Mirage. The latter seemed unlikely given her practical and colorless design.

"Hello little one, my name is Ratchet and I'm your doctor," Ratchet said in a soft careful tone that seemed out of place on the gruff medic, "Can you talk yet, little one? Can you tell me how you're feeling?"

The little carrier looked Ratchet up and down warily. She seemed to be scanning every inch of the Autobot medic. Finally, she tried to scream, but no sound came out!

"OH YeEah," the sparkling said in a grating modulating voice, "I forgOt. ScrEAming dOeSn't WOrk AnyMOre."

A few Autobots actually backed away after hearing that spark-breakingly awful voice! It sounded like a cross between a car horn and an old computer trying to shut down! It actually sounded like it would be  _painful_  for the sparkling to talk!

"Don't strain yourself, sparklet," Ratchet chided her gently, "Now, do you have a name little one?"

She looked at him a minute, as if she were trying to determine how much to tell him, and finally said "My nAme is...TErraBYte."

Her speech pattern was slow and halting, but Ratchet just assumed that was due to the damaged vocalizer and the embarrassment it caused her.

The other Autobots crowded around to get a good look at the little sparkling. They hadn't seen one so young in vorns, and they all wanted a chance to hold her and say hello. She looked at all the strange giant sized adults and tried to curl in on herself. She then frantically looked around and saw her friends lying unconscious on medical berths! She offlined her optics, as if that action could make the bad stuff go away! The others wanted to comfort her, but they weren't sure how to do so.

"Ratchet!" Hoist called from the other side of the room, "I think these might make her feel better."

Hoist then handed Ratchet the three little cassettes; two white and one silver. Ratchet handed them to the shivering sparkling and watched with relief as she hesitantly took them and then looked up at him calmly. She didn't smile, but he got the feeling she was grateful.

The door whooshed open then and admitted Sideswipe and Sunstreaker.

"Hey Ratchet, I need you to repair my foot!" Sideswipe called out jovially despite the injury to his pede, "I  _accidentally_  got it run over!"

"It was your own fault!" Sunstreaker snapped irritably, "If you hadn't bad mouthed me in front of those schoolchildren it never would've happened!"

Both twins stopped in their tracks when they saw the crowd gathered around the berth. They couldn't see what was going on, so they pushed through the others to get a good look at what was so interesting.

"Do you really think I have time to repair you slag heaps every time something goes wrong with one of your stupid games or pranks?" Ratchet barked; causing the little sparkling to flinch, "Oh no! It's alright little one, nothing's wrong! Nobody is going to hurt you…"

"Hey, look bro! A sparkling!" Sideswipe called out excitedly when he saw the little white femme.

She whipped her helm around to gaze upon Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, and her optics froze on Sunstreaker. For a few tense seconds, she didn't move or make a sound. Then, out of nowhere, she grabbed her cassettes and shouted "SHRIIIEK! SCRewBall! TURreT! RUUuUN!"

She threw the cassettes, and they turned into a white bird that looked like Laserbeak or Buzzsaw, a silver mech that looked like a bulldog with shark teeth, and a white spider looking thing that shot styrofoam pellets out of it's mouth! The three cassettes ran out of the room as quickly as possible; the spider still shooting pellets as it ran!

"Oh great!" Ratchet groused, "First Aid, help me chase down those cassettes! Hoist, keep an eye on our patients! Ironhide, watch the sparkling!"

"What do we do?" Sideswipe asked innocently.

"Don't touch anything, you scoundrels!" Ratchet bellowed at Sideswipe and his gold colored twin. The red twin pouted, but said nothing.

Ratchet didn't know if he could save the other three sparklings, but for now they had one recovering nicely, and it was going to be quite a challenge to take care of her.


	3. A Second Chance

**Chapter 3**

**A Second Chance**

Ironhide decided to take the little sparkling to the rec room before they headed for his quarters. She would need energon, and it would give the other Autobots a chance to see the little carrier before it was time for her nap.

Ratchet had placed her age around 3 vorns old, so she was coherent but not stable enough to make calculated decisions like an adult. In human terms she was probably 9 or 10 years old emotionally. To be fair though even that wasn't quite accurate. She could calculate like a computer, she required constant surveillance like a toddler, and she had the emotional instabilities of an older child.

Ironhide remembered back when he was Bumblebee's caregiver, and what a handful the little 'Bot was at this age. He briefly wondered if it was slightly different with femmes, or if this one would start causing mischief as soon as she was comfortable with everyone. He was just grateful at this point that she could walk on her own, though he carried her anyway.

When they made it into the rec room Ironhide was immediately mobbed by a group of Autobots that wanted to see their new little blessing! The sparkling was nervous, and hid her face inside Ironhide's chassis.

"Oh, she is adorable!" Bluestreak cooed, "Hey, little one! Remember me? Well, I guess you were unconscious then, but I helped save you and your friends from the shuttle. My name is Bluestreak. What's yours?"

She turned around and looked at Bluestreak, but she didn't say anything to him. She looked like she was trying to determine if he was a friend or a foe.

"Outta my way!" Ironhide groused, "I gotta get the little thing some energon! Don't you worry little lady, we'll be at our table soon enough."

The sparkling touched the left hip pocket where her cassettes were resting. It seemed like she was trying to reassure herself that they were still there.

Ironhide poured a cube of mid-grade for himself, and then poured a small cube of low-grade for the little carrier. She would need to eat often, but they had to make sure she didn't receive a grade of energon her system couldn't handle. She was still small, after all. Terrabyte didn't comment or act too eager for her energon. She just watched Ironhide with those large yellow optics.

Ironhide sat down with a group of his friends; Jazz, Inferno, Red Alert, and Brawn. He sat the sparkling on his lap and gently handed her the cube of energon. She looked up at the smiling faces of the mechs at their table, and then turned her attention to the cube. She drank it as carefully as an empress at a tea ceremony.

"Aw, ain't she just the cutest thing?" Jazz said with a wide grin.

"I don't know, something about this doesn't feel right!" Red Alert said caustically, "I mean, that other one had a bomb on her! What if they're all rigged to explode?"

"Don't be so paranoid, Red," Inferno chided his friend, "They're just sparklings. They can't hurt you."

"IS ShE OKaY?" Terrabyte suddenly asked.

"Huh?" Ironhide asked dumbly.

"Q-BoOM?" Terrabyte specified, "ShE is the SeeKer. Is SHe OKaY?"

"Ah, don't worry about that, little one," Ironhide said as he rubbed her helm in a soothing manner, "Ratchet's the best medic we have. If anyone can save your friends then it's him! Your seeker friend will be alright."

Terrabyte nodded silently and went back to ignoring the adults. They talked on for a few minutes before Terrabyte felt it was safe enough to leave the security of the red mech's lap. She jumped down, and then looked up to see if Ironhide had seen her. Of course he hadn't. She was silent and nearly unnoticeable when she moved. That was why Honey Venom always asked her to listen in on the other orphans back at the foundling home.

She looked around from under the table to see what she could see. There was the mech with the chevron on his head that claimed to have salvaged her. Would he be her new master? She shook her head and willed the thought away. She saw several minibots, but most were still taller than her. Finally she saw something that made her spark lurch in fear...Sunstreaker and Sideswipe!

So...Sunstreaker was here...Terrabyte weighed her options. She could return to her position on Ironhide's lap and pretend she never saw the golden frontliner. She could go to Bluestreak and see if he claimed salvage over her like Honey Venom said they would. No...This was an opportunity she couldn't pass up! She would have a family if it killed her, and she knew just what to do to get it!

* * *

Sideswipe was talking to Bumblebee while Sunstreaker sat there looking bored. He wanted Bumblebee to leave already so he and his brother could talk in private, but of course Sideswipe was the sociable one and had to be the center of attention!

"...So I roll into town and wouldn't you know it! Prowl is right there waiting for me! It just wasn't fair!" Sideswipe finished an anecdote he was telling Bumblebee, "Why won't that guy just get off my case?"

"Maybe it has something to do with the vanilla pudding you left in his desk drawer the other orn," Bumblebee replied with a wry smile.

The two laughed over this while Sunstreaker just wished they would talk about some other (more interesting) topic. He held his chin in his hand and looked like the picture of tedium. A moment later, however, he noticed something brush up against his leg! He looked down, and the sparkling from the medbay was tracing her finger over a shiny spot on his paint job.

"Hey, you!" Sunstreaker cried out in shock, "Get away from that!"

Sunstreaker hated it when anyone messed with his paint, and the thought of where those little digits might have been made his circuits crawl!

The sparkling flinched back as if she had touched a live wire and stared up at him in horror. She didn't scream, she couldn't, but she seriously considered running away. Sunstreaker just glared at her, and Sideswipe knew he had to step in.

"Hey, bro! She doesn't know any better! She's just a sparkling!" Sideswipe said as he got up and went around the table to meet her, "It's okay kiddo. Sunny didn't mean it. He's just a big ol' grouch, but he's harmless once you get to know him."

She backed away as Sideswipe advanced. Sideswipe stopped moving, and tried to think of another way to reassure the youngling.

"Say, do you like energon goodies?" Sideswipe asked with a big goofy smile on his face, "I've got some energon goodies if you want one."

The sparkling's face took on a skeptical look. It was probably the first animated looking expression her porcelain doll face had made all day! Sideswipe couldn't help but laugh a little, but this didn't help Terrabyte's unease. Still, she looked up at Sunstreaker, who was watching with a critical optic. She inched toward him again now that she had his attention.

"Well...What do you want?" Sunstreaker finally asked when she wouldn't stop staring at him with those huge almost creepy optics.

"YoU will take CAre of me," Terrabyte said matter-of-factly.

"Excuse you?" Sunstreaker asked rudely.

She didn't repeat herself. She knew he heard her. To illustrate her intent, Terrabyte walked around and sat in the chair where Sideswipe had been sitting a moment ago. She looked back at him, and while her face was impassive her spark was thrumming in her chest as if it were trying to escape! She was terrified, and she knew no help would come if someone decided to hurt her, but she would not give up. Sunstreaker was going to adopt her, and that was all there was to it.

* * *

Optimus Prime, meanwhile, was with Prowl in his office trying to determine the best long-term candidate to adopt Terrabyte and the other sparklings. Many mechs had taken an interest in the welfare of the little additions, but he wanted to be sure the personalities and environments were compatible.

"Hm...According to this, Wheeljack has expressed an interest in adopting the young seeker with the bomb in her chest," Optimus mused as he read his data pad.

"Of course he has," Prowl said dryly as he recalled last week's latest catastrophe thanks to Wheeljack's exploding gadgets, "I believe the more pressing matter at this time, however, is the care of the sparkling that is already online."

"Of course," Optimus agreed, "Ironhide has expressed interest in adopting her, but his duties take him away from the Ark fairly often. I don't believe an officer would be the best option. Skyfire has said he would be willing to take in a sparkling. Being a field scientist coupled with his gentle nature would make him a good candidate to be a foster parent. There is also Perceptor, though I'm not sure his quarters are exactly child friendly. He keeps a lot of breakable objects and display cases in his room."

"Logically I believe Blaster would be the best option," Prowl stated, "Terrabyte should be with a fellow carrier, and their frame type is quite rare these days. I would venture to say carriers nearly became extinct due to the war. Most were not equipped for battle and therefore made easy targets for the Decepticons."

Optimus sighed deeply at that statement. He hated to think of how many frame types and sigma ability codes were lost forever because of the war. Cassettes couldn't live without carriers, so that made their loss especially difficult. It didn't merely mean the death of a single mech, but of several at once.

Optimus and Prowl's discussion was interrupted when Sunstreaker came strolling into the office; a little white shadow in tow. He didn't even bother to ask permission to enter, but that wasn't exactly news with Sunstreaker.

"Prime, we need to talk!" Sunstreaker said abruptly.

Terrabyte stared with trepidation at first Sunstreaker, then Optimus, and then finally at Prowl. She tried to huddle into herself when she saw these big important mechs and understood that they were deciding her fate. Still, she didn't want to appear timid before them, so she forced herself to stand firm and not run away like she wanted to. She was so close to having a home again!

"Sunstreaker, we are busy right now," Prowl answered for Prime, "Come back later."

"This can't wait!" Sunstreaker insisted, "This little brat won't leave me alone! She keeps saying she wants me to adopt her! Tell her that is impossible!"

Optimus raised his brows slightly in mild surprise. For whatever reason the sparkling had attached herself to Sunstreaker. He managed not to laugh, but he was smiling behind his face mask nonetheless.

"Terrabyte," Optimus addressed the sparkling directly, and felt a twinge of hurt when she backed away from him in fear, "Don't be afraid, Terrabyte. I only want to ask you a few questions."

Terrabyte forced her shaking left hand to press against her hip compartment. She was grateful that her cassettes were still there, but part of her wanted to throw them out the window and watch them fly away to freedom since she couldn't.

"Terrabyte, why do you want Sunstreaker to be your foster parent?" Optimus asked gently; trying to avoid spooking the little thing again.

Terrabyte did have a good reason, at least in her mind, why Sunstreaker had to be the one to care for her. She wasn't about to tell anyone else however, and especially not the one mech in all the universe that could veto her plans. She knew,  _everyone_  knew, of Optimus Prime! She never in her life thought she would be standing before the leader of the Autobots himself! Honey Venom read military history books like most sparklings read comics, and had told Terrabyte all about the mighty battles Optimus Prime had fought against Megatron and others. He was a  _warrior_. This mech could crush her if he were so inclined, and she knew it. Terrabyte had never felt so small...

"I heard you were from the Altihex foundling home," Optimus continued when Terrabyte refused to speak, "Is that the city you were born in?"

"Yes SIR," Terrabyte replied in a garbled voice, "ALTihex has one of the LARGest enerGon dePOSITs on...CYBERtron."

Sunstreaker remembered Altihex quite well. He was stationed in Altihex shortly after he and Sideswipe had left the gladiatorial pits of Kaon. Decepticons had tried to overtake the city for vorns, and the Autobot forces fought back valiantly. In the end, however, it was a waste; one of far too many in this war. The energon river in Altihex was sucked dry by both forces even as they fought over who could claim it. The city was left in ruins for no reason.

That made Sunstreaker think of something else. He and Sideswipe had been orphaned by the war just as Terrabyte was. Their creator was killed by Decepticons, and they had also been sent to a foundling home. At that time they were neutrals. They were never adopted, they were frequently beaten by their caretakers, and they received their adult upgrades in that accursed foundling home! The twins became gladiators to fuel themselves and stay together; knowing they could only count on each other.

Sunstreaker still remembered saving his credits and gradually improving his body bit by bit until he was the most beautiful Cybertronian imaginable; a living work of art! He and Sideswipe had never truly known acceptance until they joined the Autobots, and even then it was clear they didn't quite fit in; especially Sunstreaker. They never had a creator to guide them through life...but maybe Terrabyte could.

"I'm sure there are many suitable guardians here on the Ark," Optimus said to the sparkling, "I'm going over the files of those who have volunteered to care for you now. You're very lucky, little one. There are many mechs on board that would love to adopt you. Would you like to meet some of them?"

"NOoo!" Terrabyte exclaimed resolutely, "It Must be SunSTrEAker."

Ugh! Sunstreaker was having seconds thoughts already! Did he really want to take in a sparkling? It would mean less time, more responsibility, watching his language in front of her, and having a perpetually messy room because of her toys and other scrap! Not to mention she had a voice so bad that it made Starscream's screeching sound like an angelic choir!

Sunstreaker sighed a defeated sigh; knowing how he would answer. He didn't really want to be a parent, but he understood what she was going through. She wasn't just an orphan; she was a war orphan. Her mangled voice box was a battle wound! She was probably tortured and left for dead, or maybe even saw her parents die before her optics! He could understand that better than most, and wanted to pass along his experience and help her grow to be strong. Besides that, she had absolute faith in his ability to take care of her. He didn't know why she did, but for some reason that was important to him.

"Prime, wait!" Sunstreaker found himself saying before he could stop himself, "I'll take her."

"What? What are you saying?" Prime asked; concerned and confused.

"I'll take her. I want her," Sunstreaker said with more confidence than he felt, "She wants me to adopt her, so that's what I'm going to do. I can do it, Prime. Besides, I have Sideswipe to help me. Between the two of us she'll have more than enough attention. What do you say? Can I keep her?"

Prowl looked dubious of the situation. While it was true that Sunstreaker wasn't as immature as Sideswipe, he also wasn't the best influence for a young mind. Truth be told, he was selfish and borderline sociopathic. The fact that he would even want the sparkling was kind of a shock. It would've made as much sense for Megatron to blast a hole in the wall and adopt Terrabyte! Actually, given the circumstances, that would make  _more_  sense!

Prime, however, looked thoughtful. Everyone in the room waited for Prime's response to Sunstreaker's impromptu request.

Finally, after a moment to gather his thoughts, Optimus leveled his optics to the gold warrior and said "I don't want to rush into anything, but I also want to consider the physical and emotional wellbeing of the sparkling. I will allow you to care for her for the next orn. If you and Terrabyte both feel that this is a suitable arrangement after that, we'll discuss making your guardianship permanent."

Sunstreaker let out a breath he didn't even know he was holding! He looked down at Terrabyte to gauge her reaction, but she didn't seem to have one. She looked from him to the Prime to Prowl as if she weren't sure what had just happened. Then again, given how short a sparkling's attention span usually was, maybe she had stopped paying attention.

Sunstreaker gave the sparkling an indifferent look and said "Ready to go?" As casually as he could without sounding rude. It still sounded a little rude.

Terrabyte stared up at him for a brief second, and then held up her hand for him to grab it. They walked out of the room in silence, neither one sure what they had just gotten themselves into.


	4. Carriers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This will probably be my last post for the night, but I'll upload more of the story soon. Hope you are enjoying it thus far, and please forgive any typos or stray punctuation marks. This story is a couple years old ^_^'

**Chapter 4**

**Carriers**

Sunstreaker brought Terrabyte to his room that he shared with Sideswipe. His red twin wasn't in yet, so Sunstreaker felt this would be a good time to introduce the sparkling to her new living arrangements as well as lay down a few ground rules.

"Okay Terrabyte, these bunk berths belong to Sideswipe and me," Sunstreaker explained, "I recharge on the bottom, and Sideswipe recharges on the top. You'll get your own berth as soon as I find one in the supply room. Under no circumstances are you to climb into my berth! I don't care if you're scared of storms or the dark or whatever! You recharge in your own berth. Understand?"

Terrabyte nodded; never taking her eyes off Sunstreaker's face.

"Good," Sunstreaker, satisfied that she was paying attention, continued, "Also, when you play with your toys I expect you to pick them up and put them away when you're done. No exceptions!"

"I DOn't have Any toys," Terrabyte stated matter-of-factly.

"I'm going to get you toys," Sunstreaker explained impatiently, "And you will be careful with them, because I don't plan on replacing them every orn. You will also keep your berth clean. A clean room means a happy guardian. You want me to be happy, don't you?"

Terrabyte nodded vigorously.

"Good femme," Sunstreaker patted her helm affectionately, "You will energize in the rec room when I do. If I'm unavailable then you'll go with Sideswipe, but under no circumstances are you to wander off on your own. Understand me?"

Terrabyte nodded.

"Good. Any questions?" Sunstreaker asked after giving her the orientation.

"MaY I releaSe my CAssetteS Now?" Terrabyte asked politely.

Sunstreaker sighed and said "I don't see why not, but they better not mess with anything!"

"THEy WON't!" Terrabyte promised pleadingly, "They will Be gOod."

"Alright then," Sunstreaker replied with a nod, "I have to go get your berth. Stay here! I mean it!"

Terrabyte nodded and released Shriek, Screwball, and Turret from her compartment. Sunstreaker sighed tiredly. This was too easy. No way could it be this easy! He heard so many stories about how difficult sparklings were to handle. He knew something was going to go wrong. He just wasn't sure what.

* * *

Sideswipe found his twin in the supply room carrying a berth that was designed for a minibot. He wondered what was going on, and decided to pester his brother for answers.

"Hey Sunny, did you get roped into helping the sparkling move into her new room?" Sideswipe asked with a lopsided grin.

"Something like that," Sunstreaker answered curtly.

"So, where's she staying?" Sideswipe asked.

"She's staying with us. I adopted her," Sunstreaker replied as if he were talking about the weather.

"What?!" Sideswipe asked; floored, "No way! You actually adopted a sparkling? This is crazy! Hey, can we take her with us when we pull pranks on the other Autobots?"

Sunstreaker just glared at Sideswipe for a moment, but then he said something completely unexpected...

"I'm in over my head, Sides!" Sunstreaker suddenly exclaimed, "I don't know how to take care of a sparkling! I barely know how to manage  _you_! What if she had special needs? What if I accidentally kill her or something? They're fragile! What am I  _doing_?! A berth and a few toys aren't going to be enough! What if I mess up?"

"Oh, you will," Sideswipe replied nonchalantly.

"Gee thanks, you're a real help…" Sunstreaker muttered sarcastically.

"Look, it's not a big deal. Lots of parents mess up," Sideswipe said reassuringly, "You'll mess up, but everybody else does too. Besides, it was obvious in the rec room that the little femme likes you. Pit, you're the only one she'll let get near her besides Ratchet! Hm, now that I think about it, that sparkling has really bad taste in character. First Ratchet the Hatchet and now you! Scrap, I wouldn't be surprised if she thought Gears was all sunshine and rainbows!"

Sunstreaker smirked despite his misgivings. Sideswipe was always good at putting a situation in perspective and cracking a joke just when he needed to hear one...and sometimes when he didn't need to hear one.

"So, how do I find out more about caring for sparklings?" Sunstreaker asked, "I know Ironhide has experience with younglings, but I don't know if he'd know anything about femmes or not."

"Maybe you're looking at it from the wrong angle," Sideswipe suggested, "Terrabyte is a carrier frame type, so you should probably learn more about their needs. It's kind of like how seekers have different needs from grounders, and racers have different needs than cargo trucks. Carriers generally don't have mobile alt modes, so she might not get too restless, but there could be other things she needs because of her frame type. We should do some research."

"I suppose," Sunstreaker replied apprehensively, "The only carrier aboard the Ark is Blaster. Maybe he'll have some suggestions."

Sideswipe nodded and pat Sunstreaker on the back; hoping to reassure his unsure twin. They went to their room to set up the berth and found Terrabyte sitting on the floor with her cassettes. They were in a circle, and Terrabyte was speaking too softly for the twins to hear. When Terrabyte saw the twins, she ordered her cassettes to return to her and quickly stepped out of the way.

"Hey, sparklet!" Sideswipe greeted her cheerily as they walked in with her new berth, "I hope you like orange. The only other colors they had in berths were orange and orange. I guess if you don't like it we can get you orange."

"ThAt won'T Be NECEsary," Terrabyte replied seriously, "AnY COLOr is FiNe."

Sideswipe sighed at her lack of response. Normally that joke got laughs! Why was she just staring at them while they worked? Was this normal for carriers? The sooner they saw Blaster about this the better.

* * *

Blaster was repairing a speaker on his console when Sunstreaker and Sideswipe came in to see him. He was actually pleased to see them. He heard about them adopting the new sparkling, and he wanted to know how she was doing. He had trouble getting the little femmes out of his head after listening to the gold one give an imploring speech over the comm of their dead caretaker.

"Hey, my mechs!" What's happenin'?" Blaster greeted them amiably as Sunstreaker stepped around some broken equipment on the floor.

"Hey, Blaster!" Sideswipe greeted back with a wide grin, "Actually, we were wondering if we could pick your processor for a moment."

"Certainly," Blaster replied warmly as he shoved bits of junk out of two chairs for them to sit down on, "What's up?"

Sunstreaker grimaced when he looked around Blaster's office. It was filthy! There was junk, spare parts, and even used energon cubes everywhere! He hoped his sparkling wouldn't have habits like these, but then again he thought that might be too judgmental. It probably wasn't a carrier thing so much as a  _Blaster_  thing.

Reluctantly, Sunstreaker sat down on the proffered chair and asked his question to Blaster.

"Special needs, huh?" Blaster repeated after Sunstreaker finished explaining what he was worried about, "Well, for the most part carriers are pretty mellow. We're not so different from other Cybertronians. We have different personalities, different goals in life, and different ideas on ideology. There is one thing though you might wanna look out for."

"And that is?" Sideswipe asked so Sunstreaker wouldn't have to.

"Carriers that young go through what is known as a loyalty bond," Blaster explained, "Truth is some adult carriers do it too. I never did after I received my adult upgrade, but I'm just sayin' it happens. Loyalty bonding is when a carrier finds one special person, it can be a parent or a best friend or an authority figure, and they devote themselves  _completely_  to that individual. When I say completely, I mean they follow that person around like a shadow, they obey that person's every word, and are even willing to  _die_  for that person. It's a level of selflessness that most sparklings could never hope to achieve. I suppose most adults don't have this issue because they create cassettes to dote over and devote themselves to. Carriers are social creatures and go crazy if they have to be alone. I should know, I've been there before."

"Really? When?" Sideswipe asked out of curiosity.

"During a battle in Polyhex 6 million years ago," Blaster related, "I was captured by the Decepticons under Megatron's command and held prisoner for 3 orns. Of course Soundwave, bein' a carrier, knew my weak spot. He suggested to Megatron that I be placed in sensory isolation. I almost went mad! Carriers have some of the most sensitive audios of any Cybertronian, and when we can't hear sounds it's as if we're dead! I almost didn't make it out of there alive. If I'd had the means, I would'a offlined myself in that cell…"

"So what Terrabyte needs is noise and company?" Sunstreaker asked; changing the subject in the hopes of avoiding a PTSD flashback from Blaster.

"Exactly! Other than that, I don't think yall'll have any problems," Blaster said jovially; his mood brightening as if nothing had happened.

The war had left scars on every Autobot on the Ark. Sunstreaker knew this, but he didn't think he'd ever get used to seeing a chill guy like Blaster reminisce about the darkest time in his life like that. He began to wonder how much of the war Terrabyte had seen, and how much it had affected her.


	5. A Friend In Need

**Chapter 5**

**A Friend In Need**

It was late in the day before Sunstreaker remembered that Terrabyte had not eaten since she had been with Ironhide. He was still on patrol, so he comm'ed Sideswipe and asked him (ordered him) to accompany Terrabyte to the rec room. He took her along and watched as several mechs crowded her to get to hold the new sparkling. Terrabyte wasn't thrilled with the attention but didn't resist.

After she had drank her fill of energon Sideswipe had said they could go anywhere she wanted. He suggested several fun activities like the shooting range, the game room, and Red Alert's office so they could scare him. Terrabyte, however, insisted that they go to the medbay.

Sideswipe groaned when she suggested that! He did not want to see Ratchet and get a wrench thrown at his head for wasting the medic's time. Terrabyte, however, said it was important that she see her friends, and said she especially needed to see Phobia before the day was through.

When the pair got to the medbay the first thing Sideswipe noticed was Ratchet's dim optics and tired looking face as he leaned over a tray of equipment. It was obvious that whatever he had to do to keep the sparklings alive was taking its toll on him. He looked at Sideswipe and scowled, but then looked down at Terrabyte and became openly concerned.

"Has something happened with the sparkling?" Ratchet asked hurriedly, "Is she alright? Should I run some scans?"

"No, she's fine!" Sideswipe waved away Ratchet's concerns, "She just insisted on coming here. I guess she must've missed your company, oh endearing one!"

Ratchet frowned humorlessly at Sideswipe's sarcasm. He was far too busy to have to deal with the red twin's antics!

"Sideswipe, take the sparkling and leave," Ratchet said as patiently as he could manage, "Right now I'm in the middle of research! Frankly, I think..." Ratchet walked closer to Sideswipe so the sparkling wouldn't hear, "...I think one of the sparklings is going to die soon. I can't figure out how to feed the energon leech, and her systems are starting to shut down one by one. I'm trying to figure out an alternative way to feed her, but I can't find anything. Intravenous fluids are rejected and purged through her hands, as is energon from a cube. She needs the kind of energon only a mech's body can refine. I don't know what I'm going to do…"

While Sideswipe and Ratchet were talking, Terrabyte had made her way to the medical berths. Q-Boom was nowhere to be found, and that worried her. Had the seeker already died? Why wouldn't they tell her?

She looked over at Honey Venom and a pang of sorrow hit her like a physical blow. Honey Venom was her best friend. She was the one that made the Sigma Sisters the most feared gang in the foundling home and kept them safe. She had saved Terrabyte's life on more than one occasion. How could such a mighty youngling be reduced to  _this_?

Terrabyte remembered when she first got to the foundling home. She had only been 1 and ½ vorns old at the time, and didn't understand how the hierarchy worked at first. The foundling home was in neutral territory with orphans from both factions as well as neutrals. Most of the caretakers were Decepticons, and didn't care for weak sparklings. That meant if you weren't in a gang, you were slagged.

At first no one wanted anything to do with the bland sparkling with the horrible voice and unruly cassettes. She felt she would never make friends, but then Honey Venom introduced herself as well as Q-Boom, and Terrabyte's life was never the same. Phobia had joined their gang last; being dumped at the foundling home when she was a newspark, and not needing friends until her first vorn of life.

She had to will the thought away, however. She wasn't here to reminisce. She was here for Phobia. She turned to the mouthless femme and felt of her spark. Sure enough, these jokers were forgetting to feed her! She wasn't surprised. The caretakers at the foundling home always starved Phobia in the hopes that she would die and they wouldn't have to deal with an energon leech anymore. Why would these adults be any different? Adults were too superstitious for their own good in Terrabyte's opinion.

"Just hAng on," Terrabyte said quietly, "I'm hERe…"

Terrabyte then took Phobia's left hand and gently worked the suction tubes with her thumb. The action caused the systems to come alive hungrily, and Terrabyte placed the eager appendage over her right upper forearm. The leech, despite being out cold, began to feed off of Terrabyte's energon!

Terrabyte had drank almost to the point of purging in the rec room with Sideswipe because she knew she would lose most of her supply to Phobia. This wasn't new. In the founding home the other three Sigma Sisters would take turns feeding Phobia so she wouldn't shut down. It was very risky back then. Altihex Foundling Home was in a war zone and therefore barely had enough energon to keep half its orphans alive. To give up energon to a leech was seen by most as suicide! Fortunately, when their caretaker Tearjerker had started working there she would also give Phobia a share of her energon.

Terrabyte waited until her systems were down to 46% before gently disconnecting herself from Phobia. 46% wasn't enough energon to function well, but Terrabyte was used to less, so this was no sacrifice. She would have to come back later and repeat the process if the medic still refused mercy by then. Terrabyte still didn't know that Ratchet was trying to save Phobia. She thought he was doing it on purpose!

"You could try letting her feed off of you!" Sideswipe insisted after Ratchet explained his plight.

"Don't you think I've  _tried_  that?!" Ratchet snapped defensively, "I have, but the poor thing is unconscious! I can't get her to latch onto me!"

Terrabyte walked up to Sideswipe but wasn't really paying attention to the adults. She was still staring at the prone forms of Honey Venom and Phobia. She wanted to talk to them so badly. She needed them! How would she survive her new home without her friends?

Before she knew what was happening, Sideswipe had taken her little hand and was pulling her away from the medbay. She didn't resist, but part of her wished she wasn't leaving. What if her sisters woke up without her? Sideswipe said they were going back to her room and she could play with her cassettes, so Terrabyte forced herself to forget the medbay for now.

Ratchet, alone again, returned to the sparklings. He looked down at Phobia and wondered what he was going to do with her, when he noticed that her vital signs had changed! Her systems, while not ready to support consciousness yet, were starting to come back online! Her energon readings were at 78%!

"Wait a minute...The sparkling!" Ratchet exclaimed as he realized what must have happened, "Sideswipe! Wait! You need to give Terrabyte more energon!" Ratchet cried out as he ran down the halls after Sideswipe.

* * *

Terrabyte had gone into recharge that night before Sunstreaker even made it back to his quarters. Sideswipe had told her a bedtime story about an earth train that could climb a hill. It was a boring story, but it did put her to sleep, so who were they to complain?

Sunstreaker had come in to see Terrabyte recharging peacefully and Sideswipe on a data pad playing a game on the top bunk. It was the picture of a perfect family, and Sunstreaker almost found himself wanting to smile. Almost.

"Hey Sides, you have any trouble with the kid?" Sunstreaker asked nonchalantly as he crawled into his own bunk.

"Nah, it was easy, kinda boring actually," Sideswipe admitted, "I thought we'd play games or prank the other Autobots together, but all she did was eat and walk around. Oh, and show Ratchet a technique for feeding the energon leech."

"She knows how to do that?" Sunstreaker raised an optic ridge at that one.

"Yeah, she's pretty smart," Sideswipe said approvingly as he killed another virtual Decepticon on his game, "Ratchet said the other sparkling would've died without Terrabyte. She still seems nervous around the other 'Bots, but I think she's starting to get used to us."

"Hope so," Sunstreaker replied, "Glad to see the room is still clean."

"Yeah, she took your advice to spark," Sideswipe commented, "I think she's worried about disappointing you. I guess the kid has abandonment issues. I don't know. I'm no doctor."

Sunstreaker grunted a reply and settled in to get some recharge of his own. The first day had gone surprisingly well with the sparkling. If every day was this uneventful then Sunstreaker could see himself adopting Terrabyte permanently. His sparkling would be the best behaved sparkling ever, and would grow up to be a beautiful and fierce warrior like himself. Sunstreaker drifted off to recharge content with these thoughts…

* * *

Sunstreaker awoke with a start when he heard out-of-tune screaming! He could tell it was Terrabyte, but he wasn't alert enough to know what was going on! Was it a Decepticon attack? Was her spark having troubles again? Did her body reject some bad energon? What was happening?

"NNOOooooOOOoO!" He heard the distressed wailing of his sparkling.

"Sideswipe, wake up!" Sunstreaker hollered up to the top bunk, "Terrabyte's in trouble and I might need you for backup!"

Sideswipe at first was slow to awaken, but when he heard the screaming of the little carrier he shot up immediately!

They looked around in the darkness only to find Terrabyte was stil in her berth; her tiny fists clutched at her sides and her optics still offline.

"PleEEeEaaAaSSe!" Terrabyte's cries were so loud the twins had to turn down the sensitivity of their audio sensors.

"Uh, Sunny…? I don't think she's conscious," Sideswipe pointed out, "I think she's having a nightmare."

"Well, I can't sleep like this!" Sunstreaker declared in exasperation, "I'm waking her up!"

...

_Altihex. The front. The sky was red and smoke billowed from the ruined buildings. Terrabyte's mother tugged her along by the arm while her father provided backup fire. Her father was a boat-former, so his steps were clumsy and awkward on land. Her mother would frequently have to stop to wait for him._

_Her parents were soldiers, but that didn't make this any easier. Terrabyte wasn't normally on the front lines with them, but the enemy had destroyed their camp and killed most of the others. They had to get away before those monsters found them! Her mother touched her front compartment again to make sure her cassettes were still inside. Shriek, Screwball, and Turret were the only ones they could save. Scramble was dead._

_Their steps became even more halted as they climbed over chunks of rubble and debris. Once proud buildings lay on the ground in ruins, and bodies of dead mechs with freshly spilled energon littered the ground. That told the family that someone had been here recently to kill all these mechs, and her parents had a pretty good idea who it was._

_As they climbed up another batch of rubble, a large mech came out of the ground at them! His eyes glowed unholy fury at them, and his hands were stained with the energon of his claimed victims! This was clearly the monster that had killed the others at the camp! Except no, it wasn't, because not a minute later he was joined by another monster; this one almost glowing amid the chaos and destruction! Energon draped over their bodies like a royal robe, and optics glowed like bare sparks! These two were going to kill them...That was all too obvious._

_Her mother, in an act of pure desperation, shoved Terrabyte into a crevice and took out her cassettes; placing them in the small hole with her. Her father attacked the first monster; a blood red creature with a vibroblade in his hand!_

_Terrabyte saw with horrible clarity the struggle! Her mother went up against the second monster, the glowing one, and didn't even get in one good blow before he ripped out the circuitry from her empty cassette compartment! He ripped away vital wiring and energon lines with his bare hands! Terrabyte's mother went slack in his grip before she could even cry out in agony!_

_The blood colored one held her father in a vice-like grip; choking the ventilation systems and trying to cut crucial wires from his neck! Terrabyte had to save him! She left the cassettes behind and rushed toward the monster! These enemy soldiers weren't counting on one thing: a sparkling with a sigma ability!_

_Terrabyte screamed at the enemy mech; her voice producing a pitch that could scramble processors and cause temporary paralysis! The noise was oddly beautiful, but then again Terrabyte was always praised for her angelic voice._

_The blood mech crumpled under her sonic waves, but it was too late for her father. He was already dead. Terrabyte was so focused on his dead body that she didn't even notice the glowing mech until he was right upon her!_

_She turned around swiftly when she saw his shadow, but before she could get away he had his massive hands around her tiny throat! He grit his denta in blind fury, and gave her a withering look that was more filled with hate than anything she had ever seen! She tried to cry out, but her vents were being constricted! Her voice, what little of it could be heard, sounded wrong!_

No! No! Please! I'll do anything! _She wanted to cry out, but no words came. She was trapped! The monster was staring her right in the face! He was so close to her she could see her reflection in his paint!_

_No! No! Nooooo!_

_..._

"NooOooOO!" Terrabyte cried out as her systems suddenly and violently onlined.

Sunstreaker was face to face with her, and was grateful to see she was finally awake.

Terrabyte looked him in the face, but she didn't recognize yet where she was! It was dark! Why was it dark? The monster was going to kill her!

"NooOOo!" PLEasE! LET me GO!" Terrabyte thrashed violently as she tried to free herself from Sunstreaker's protective grip, "I'M SOrRY! DOn't KILL ME! PLEEaASE!"

"Terrabyte! Calm down! It's me! Sunstreaker!" Sunstreaker held her arms tightly to prevent her from hurting herself, "It was just a dream! You're safe!"

"Yeah, come on, sparklet," Sideswipe said encouragingly from the other side of her berth, "We're here for you."

She darted her head to Sideswipe, and then back at Sunstreaker. Her optics were still wide in fear, but she stopped struggling. Content that she wasn't going to fall off the berth, Sunstreaker let go of her arms. What she did next both confused and frustrated Sunstreaker.

"ShRIEk, ScrewBall, TURret, RUN!" Terrabyte shouted as she threw her cassettes at the door and watched them unfold and escape through the air vent!

Sunstreaker groaned; realizing he and Sideswipe would both have to chase down cassettes on the middle of the night. He knew this arrangement was going too smoothly! He  _knew_  there had to be a catch!


	6. Mischief

**Chapter 6**

**Mischief**

Sunstreaker had endured the two week trial with Terrabyte, but just barely. He still wasn't sure whether or not he wanted to keep the sparkling, but he knew he needed to come up with an answer for Prime today. If only he could make heads or tails of everything that had happened in the past orn…

* * *

Sunstreaker knew Terrabyte would get bored easily just sitting in their room doing nothing but talking to three primitive cassettes, so he asked Blaster what activity would properly enrich his little carrier sparkling. Blaster said music was a sure fire way to get Terrabyte to come out of her shell. Armed with this knowledge, the yellow twin made his way to Jazz to ask if he would sparkling-sit Terrabyte and introduce her to some music appropriate for her age.

Sunstreaker had monitor duty that day, and did his job without worry; confident that Jazz was a suitable sparkling sitter. When he went to pick up Terrabyte, Jazz said she behaved well for him but that she was nervous in his presence. Sunstreaker was confused, but saw that no harm came to Terrabyte and promised to allow Jazz to watch her again in the future.

When they got back to his quarters, however, Sunstreaker saw a side to Terrabyte he wasn't aware of before.

"I FOUnd a SoNg that...REminds me of yOu," Terrabyte said innocently as she turned a disc carefully around in her digits.

"Really? You gonna play it?" Sunstreaker asked in an effort to show interest in his new daughter.

"Yes, SunStREAker," Terrabyte replied dutifully as she placed the disc in her chassis for it to play.

_They call him The Streak! (Look at that! Look at that!) The fastest thing on two feet!_

As Sunstreaker listened at first he was flattered, but then he realized the song was about a naked human running around, and he felt scandalized!

"What the-?" Sunstreaker started to exclaim, but before he could finish Terrabyte was already releasing her cassettes into the hallways of the Ark! He growled and ran out to collect the wayward cassettes, and when he got back Terrabyte was gone! It took him nearly a joor to find her, and she was hiding in the medbay under the gold sparkling's berth. Figures...

Other than  _The Streak_ incident, most of Terrabyte's music choices were a mystery. She played her music over her internal comm system so she wouldn't disturb her surrogate father. Sideswipe snuck a listen once and found a human song by One Republic called Apologize. It sounded boring, but that wasn't exactly news. Terrabyte, as it turned out, was generally a very placid and boring sparkling. She sat around with her cassettes and frequently asked to be taken to the medbay, but not much else. It was as if they were raising Baby Prowl!

Well, there was  _one_  other thing she was interested in...pets.

Terrabyte would sometimes go outside with Sideswipe or Bumblebee or whoever was watching her that day, and it always seemed she came home with an animal in her arms begging to be allowed to keep it.

"CaN I KeeP Him?" Terrabyte asked.

"No. Take that dog back outside!" Sunstreaker snapped.

"Yes, SunSTREAkeR," Terrabyte replied respectfully.

The next day…

"CaN I KeeP Him?" Terrabyte asked.

"No. Get rid of the cat!" Sunstreaker snapped.

"Yes, SunSTREAKer," Terrabyte replied sadly.

The next day…

"CaN I KeeP HeR?" Terrabyte asked.

"Oh,  _Pit_!" Sunstreaker cursed, "Get that skunk out of my room!"

"Yes, SunstREAkeR," Terrabyte replied sorrowfully.

Later that same day…

"CaN I KeeP Him?" Terrabyte asked; holding out another pet.

"Terrabyte…" Sunstreaker said flatly, "...That's a construction worker. Put that human back where you found him."

"Yes, SunStrEAKeR," Terrabyte replied dutifully.

This went on day after day with only two days where she didn't bring anything home! It was so annoying! Why would he give her  _more_  pets when she unleashed her three cassettes every time someone even looked at her funny? Frankly, Sunstreaker was at a loss to figure out her strange behavior. At least, he was, until the day before his review with Prime, when Terrabyte formally met Prowl…

* * *

 _The day before.._.

Sideswipe couldn't quite figure out what Sunny's problem was. He had a sparkling at home that needed his attention, and yet today he volunteers for a double shift! His twin was really screwed up sometimes. Sideswipe knew that this probably meant they wouldn't get to keep Terrabyte, and part of him was sorry about that. Despite her lack of enthusiasm, she really was a sweet little sparkling.

That was why he was in Lamborghini mode with her in his front seat today. If she was going to have to live with someone else, then he wanted to give her something cool to remember of their time together.

They were on a curvy mountain road about 20 miles from the Ark, and Sideswipe was the only car within sensor range.

"Alright kiddo, buckle up! We're about to go really fast!" Sideswipe warned playfully as he hit the gas and was going nearly 200 MPH.

At first Terrabyte didn't seem to change. She didn't clench the seat and she didn't scream or whoop. She seemed neither delighted or frightened. The perfect picture of calm. Sideswipe was disappointed by that.

Then, after a few minutes of Sideswipe driving fast and doing ridiculous stunts over the curves, Terrabyte let out a strange sound that sounded like a cross between a squeal and a howl! Sideswipe had heard a similar sound before when she was startled, but this didn't sound distressed. She did it again a minute later, and then again. It took Sideswipe a few times before he realized she was literally saying "LOL!" in a high-pitched squeal. That was when Sideswipe realized he had never heard her laugh before, and hypothesized that this LOL sound  _was_  her laughing!

"You wanna go off-road, Terra?" Sideswipe asked excitedly.

"Yes, SiDeSWIPE," Terrabyte replied blandly, though there seemed to be a hint of anticipation in her tone.

Sideswipe swerved off the next curve and started driving through a sparsely wooded area! He swerved around trees and even used a boulder as a ramp to jump high in the air before landing on the leaf-covered ground! He had trouble finding purchase a few times, but he was having the time of his life! Judging from the LOLing, Terrabyte was having fun, too.

Sideswipe found the road on the other side of the forest and drove recklessly onto it as he blasted the radio on maximum! Terrabyte turned the dial to the kids tunes channel, and it started playing "Let It Go". Sideswipe got annoyed with that song pretty quickly, so he switched it to classic pop and rock. Terrabyte switched it back to "Let It Go" and Sideswipe kept switching it to "Billie Jean". Before long it was an all-out battle as they both vied for control of Sideswipe's radio!

That was why they didn't notice they were being chased by a police car!

"Come on, kid! My radio, my rules!" Sideswipe argued as he drove.

"I LIke THis SONg," Terrabyte contested as she switched it back to the tail-end of "Let It Go".

The next song on the kids channel was "The Farmer In The Dell", and Terrabyte didn't care about that, so she allowed Sideswipe to switch it to a song called "Barracuda". When that crisis was settled, Sideswipe was finally able to focus all of his attention on his surroundings, and that was when he noticed the police car behind them!

"Oh, scrap!" Sideswipe cursed, "It's Prowl!"

Terrabyte's optics widened, but she made no sound or movement beyond that. This was bad. If Sideswipe was nervous, then she had reason to be nervous.

Sideswipe pulled over, and Prowl said over the comm link "Turn around and head back to the Ark immediately. I will see you in my office when we get back."

Letting out in intake of air, Sideswipe defeatedly did as he was told. Terrabyte heard the stern tone Prowl had used over the radio. Was she in trouble too? Would her cassettes be in trouble even though they were in her hip the entire time? Would their innocence even matter to this Prowl person? Terrabyte shuttered her optics and tried not to think about it too much.

* * *

Sideswipe and Terrabyte sat on two chairs in Prowl's office. Terrabyte's feet didn't even touch the floor from where she sat! They both looked at Prowl as he continued to work on whatever office work he had left to do. He didn't even look at them the entire time he was finishing his task. He was clearly ignoring them on purpose. That made Sideswipe angry, but what he didn't realize was how unnerved it was making his brother's sparkling.

Terrabyte sat there and contemplated all the horrible things that could happen now that she was at the mercy of this strange black and white mech. He looked like a Praxian. She had only ever seen one Praxian before coming to the Ark, and it wasn't an experience she intended to repeat. That Praxian had been a sparkling from a rival gang named Hangar, and he once tried to completely rip out her voice box because he hated her distorted vocal tones. Would Prowl remove her voice for this infraction? Would she spend the rest of her life in the brig? Would he kill her?

When Prowl finished his last bit of office work, he turned to face the two juvenile delinquents.

"Sideswipe, do you understand the danger you put yourself, your niece, and the human population in today?" Prowl asked harshly, "Your reckless driving could have killed someone today, and if I had not reigned you in it likely would have. Not only are you setting a bad example for little Terrabyte here…" She flinched when he said her name, "...But you are also giving the humans the wrong impression about what the Autobots stand for."

"Listen Prowl," Sideswipe interrupted, "I've heard this lecture before. Could we skip the formalities and get straight to my punishment already? The sooner you dole it out, the sooner I can finish it."

Terrabyte's spark felt like it was seizing in its casing! Why would Sideswipe provoke the second in command of the entire Autobot faction?! If this mech ordered their execution no one other than the Prime himself could save them, and why would he save  _her_? Terrabyte was just a useless sparkling! She knew she was expendable to everyone here, and didn't want to do anything to cause trouble.

Prowl sighed at Sideswipe's blasé attitude, though he silently admitted that he wasn't surprised. Still, he and Sunstreaker wanted to take care of a sparkling, and they had to understand that their actions had consequences that went beyond themselves. If anything happened to that innocent little femme because of these leadheads Prowl would never forgive himself for not stepping in sooner.

"Sideswipe, before I discipline you I need you to understand something," Prowl said solemnly, "You're not a youngling anymore. I know Sunstreaker is technically this femme's guardian, but you are also an influence on the child's behavior, and I don't want her to suffer because of choices you made for her. If Sunstreaker decides to keep her and you continue on this destructive path, then I might have to move you to separate quarters from your brother and his sparkling."

" _What_? You can't do that!" Sideswipe shouted; causing Terrabyte to shrink further into herself in an effort to hide, "Look, we were just having fun! She wasn't in any danger, and neither was I! I would never let something bad happen to Sunny's kid like that! You know me better than that!"

"Exactly," Prowl said dryly; letting the implications speak for themselves, "You are confined to the brig for one orn starting next week. Hopefully this will give you time to figure out how to be a more responsible uncle."

Sideswipe muttered under his breath about injustice and where Prowl could stick his rules, but didn't protest the punishment.

"And as for you, Terrabyte," Prowl now turned his full attention to the sparkling, and she couldn't take it anymore!

"ShriEK, ScrEWball, TURRet! EScAPE!" Terrabyte frantically shouted as she threw her cassettes into the air vent above Prowl's head!

The three cassettes transformed and Shriek grabbed Screwball in her talons! Turret managed to scale the wall, and before Prowl could grab them they had run into the air vents again! This was getting to be a regular thing with them, and Prowl was starting to suspect why…

"Terrabyte-" Prowl began to speak, but was cut off by the aforementioned sparkling.

"NoOOo! I'm SOrry!" Terrabyte wailed plaintively, "I'lL WOrk HARDeR! Don'T kilL me. PLEAsE!"

Prowl actually paused at those words. He knew the sparkling was nervous, but to insinuate that her life was in danger and  _mean it._..This added a new layer to Prowl's suspicions.

Terrabyte, meanwhile, stared up at the authority figure with unabashed terror! His blue optics regarded her coldly with an expression she couldn't quite place. His face was almost as expressionless as her own. Up until that point she didn't know there were other Cybertronians as imperfect as she was. Was he broken? Did he hide his feelings like she did, or did he simply not have them? She heard rumors that the Decepticon scientist Shockwave had his emotions surgically removed, but she was sure that was just a rumor. Then again, maybe mechs with higher positions of authority did that so they could deal with insubordinate mechs without feeling sorry for them.

"Terrabyte," Prowl started again, "I won't punish you on one condition."

"AnyThinG, SiR," Terrabyte said softly as she stared at the floor instead of him.

"I want you to see Smokescreen for an hour every day for the next earth week," Prowl ordered, "He is our resident psychologist, or the closest thing we have to one. Do you know what a psychologist is, Terrabyte?"

Terrabyte shook her head no.

"A psychologist talks to you about your feelings and life experiences in an attempt to help you function better in society," Prowl explained, "I believe Smokescreen can help you function better here on the Ark with us. That way, you can stop releasing your cassettes and forcing the crew to chase them down every cycle."

"WilL you...HaRM my CasSeTteS?" Terrabyte asked hesitantly.

"No, I won't," Prowl assured her, "But you need to see Smokescreen. I would advise you to start today, but that is up to Sunstreaker."

"Yes, SiR," Terrabyte nodded her head obediently.

After Sideswipe and Terrabyte left Prowl found himself contemplating the situation. Terrabyte wasn't a bad sparkling, that much was obvious. Still, she displayed coping behaviors that were quite unsettling, and she didn't seem to be warming up to any of the Autobots, not even her own guardian Sunstreaker! Prowl deduced as many logical reasons as he could for this, but logic hardly played a part in the processor of a sparkling. Besides, these behaviors pointed to one of only a couple possibilities.

The most likely answer was that Terrabyte had been abused.

* * *

Sunstreaker had allowed Terrabyte to recharge longer than usual after she came back from Prowl's office.  _Ah, her first time_...Getting into trouble with Prowl would make for an interesting rite of passage for his new family. Maybe he could record it for posterity when she got in trouble with Ratchet for the first time. Or with Ironhide. Or Optimus Prime. Or- or maybe he should stop thinking about that for now!

Sunstreaker had taken Prowl's advice to spark, and the next day he had stopped by Smokescreen's office before going to Prime with his decision. Maybe if he knew how much care she would need it would help him make an informed decision.

They had to wait to see Smokescreen. He and Mirage had been appraising jewelry Smokescreen had bought from Swindle. No, Smokescreen didn't wear human rings and necklaces! They were trying to determine if they were counterfeit so they could tell the local authorities about Swindle's illegal actions. Of course, finding a cell big enough for him would be another matter…

Sunstreaker sat in a chair outside the office and waited impatiently for Terrabyte to be allowed to go back there. She seemed content to just wait. Sunstreaker shook his head sorrowfully. What kind of a sparkling was content to wait around like a plant catching the sunlight? It was so boring!

"So, Terrabyte," Sunstreaker began awkwardly trying to start a conversation, "How do you like living here so far?"

Terrabyte shrugged minutely and continued to kick her legs back and forth from where she sat,

"Uh-huh," Sunstreaker grunted as he tried to think of anything else to say, "So, um...I saw Screwball chewing on your arm this morning. That must've hurt."

"He Was nerVOus," Terrabyte replied without inflection.

"About what?" Sunstreaker asked.

"TodAy," Terrabyte answered, but didn't elaborate.

"Oh…" Sunstreaker wanted to do something besides sit there, and it was only making him feel worse when he saw his sparkling doing a better job at keeping herself calm than him, "I've been thinking about your education. It would help me if I knew what kind of upgrades you want when you're older. Then we'll know what kind of fighting style we should be teaching you. I guess you could go into the sciences if you're interested in that as well. There's also sharpshooting, hand-to-hand combat, spy training, and just about anything else you could want to know. So...Anything specific you want to learn?"

"That is YouR DeciSiOn," Terrabyte replied unhelpfully.

Sunstreaker sighed heavily and slumped in his chair in defeat. How was he going to reach her?

He didn't have long to think about it as Smokescreen called for Terrabyte to enter. Mirage left the room holding a bundle of fake diamond necklaces in the palm of his hand. Sunstreaker chuckled to himself when he saw the noblemech carrying fake jewelry. It must've disgusted Mirage to even have to touch those!

For the next hour Sunstreaker kept himself busy by playing a game of Mario Kart with his brother. Fortunately time flies when you're having fun, and he was able to make it back to Smokescreen in time for him to release his little patient.

Sideswipe took Terrabyte's hand and led her away so Sunstreaker and Smokescreen could talk alone.

"So, why is she so messed up?" Sunstreaker asked without preamble.

"She's not messed up, Sunstreaker," Smokescreen defended his patient, "She's just having trouble adjusting. I can't tell you what she told me due to patient/therapist confidentiality, but I can at least tell you why she releases the cassettes so often."

"And?" Sunstreaker snapped.

Smokescreen sighed before he spoke; weary from his session with the sparkling, "Well, in short, Terrabyte believes when she does something wrong or when she is being threatened that her cassettes will be punished or killed. By releasing them, she is giving them time to run away while she holds off their attackers. She doesn't feel safe here yet. She has never known a safe environment, and associates adults with pain and death. Those cassettes were created by her mother, so in a sense they are her siblings. Therefore, she feels very protective of them. I'm afraid that's all I can say. Terrabyte trusts me to keep her secrets, and I wouldn't want her to lose trust in me."

"Thank you, Smokescreen," Sunstreaker replied sincerely, which surprised Smokescreen, "I'll do whatever I can to make her feel safe. She'll learn soon enough that the Autobots are here to protect her, you'll see!"

Sunstreaker didn't know how he was going to make Terrabyte see that, but he knew he had to try. That meant he had to keep her. If she grew up feeling constantly threatened and subjugated, then she would become a bitter adult that took out her frustrations on whatever enemy she could find...Just like Sunstreaker.


	7. Alt Modes

**Chapter 7**

**Alt Modes**

Sunstreaker had to work hard to convince Prime to allow him to keep Terrabyte. Part of him even wanted to cave in to Optimus Prime's logical arguments and surrender Terrabyte, but he couldn't. She needed him. If anyone understood the pitfalls of being antisocial, it was Sunstreaker. As he spoke to Prime he actually felt like he was Terrabyte begging to be allowed to keep an ill-advised pet. He wondered if his decision was also ill-advised.

That had been a few days ago, and so far there had been no new incidents. He and his brother tried to introduce her to new people, but she still mostly reacted with either indifference or fear. The only places she wanted to go were their shared quarters and the medbay. She probably would've lived in the medbay if they'd let her! The twins  _really_  had trouble understanding that one! How anyone could stand being so close to Ratchet for that long was beyond their comprehension!

One day, Terrabyte had even been allowed to enter the isolation room where Q-Boom was being kept. They had six isolation rooms on the Ark. These rooms were designed to hold dangerous Decepticon criminals that needed medical treatment. Q-Boom was kept here so nothing would explode outside that room if something went wrong. They had even joked about treating her in Wheeljack's lab!

Speaking of which, Wheeljack had been assigned to treat Q-Boom since he was the only one built to withstand such deadly explosives. When she awoke and started talking to him, it only made the engineer grow more attached to her. Terrabyte had been the only one there when Q-Boom first awoke, and neither discussed what they said to one another. Terrabyte left the room and had a small smile on her face; one of the first the Autobots had ever seen on her!

Phobia awoke every now and then, but her body couldn't handle being online for long periods of time. Ratchet applied the technique Terrabyte had shown him to feed Phobia, and the little leech was surprised to see the adult medic so willing to let her feed off him. Phobia's name, as it turned out, was only mildly applicable. At first she was terrified of every movement or noise, but after Ratchet explained what everything was she calmed down rather quickly. She was full of questions, and frankly answering them all was even more tiring for the medic than treating her had been!

Honey Venom still had not awoke, and Ratchet wasn't sure if she ever would. Poor Terrabyte never gave up, however, and would go to the gold sparkling's berth every night to talk to her or just stand in silence and hold her hand.

Other than the sparklings and cassettes, Terrabyte didn't have much of a social life, and she tried her best not to bother Sunstreaker and Sideswipe.

Today was a special day for Terrabyte, however. That was obvious when she woke up Sunstreaker an hour early from his recharge and demanded he wake up and take her to Teletran 1. Normally anyone who woke up Sunstreaker like that would get a punch to the jaw, but he made an exception for his little sparkling. Actually, he was relieved she was finally comfortable enough with him to get close like that!

Still, after he awoke he spent a good 10 minutes polishing the part of his armor where she had touched it. Terrabyte was surprisingly clean for a sparkling, but she still handled wild animals and sick sparklings in the medbay, and Sunstreaker could never be too careful about his beautiful gold paint.

When he was satisfied with his appearance, Sunstreaker took Terrabyte's hand in his and led her to Teletran 1 for the occasion that had her so excited: choosing her alt mode! Phobia and Q-Boom would choose their alts as well, but all Sunstreaker cared about was what cool new machine his little femme would turn into.

They made it to the main control room where Teletran 1 was kept, and Sunstreaker could see that there were already several Autobots standing around the monitor, as well as the two new sparklings.

When Sunstreaker and Terrabyte got close, the two other sparklings looked at them. At first their faces lit up at seeing Terrabyte, but then they looked up and Sunstreaker and a dark cloud seemed to form. Phobia looked like she was about to cry, so Q-Boom wrapped the leech around herself protectively and flared her wings in what would've been a threatening gesture if she wasn't so cute and short.

Q-Boom looked up at Sunstreaker with undisguised hatred and distrust. He supposed that was normal. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe were known to be the best jet judo fighters in the Autobot fleet (they had actually invented the combat technique), so it was no surprise a seeker sparkling would hate and fear him. He was designed to kill her frame type!

Now that Sunstreaker was close enough to really look at them and see them awake, he noticed that the two new sparklings had red optics. Q-Boom's were large like Terrabyte's yellow optics, and Phobia's were small like an adult-former. So, these two were Decepticon sparklings before being abandoned…

Terrabyte, meanwhile, wasn't paying attention to either her caregiver or the sparklings that were eyeing him warily. She was enthralled with Teletran 1, and looked up at the computer with rapture as she imagined all the alt modes available to her! She wanted to see her friends' new alt modes, too. Even though everything had been scary so far, when she looked up at the technicians working on the alt mode catalog she felt a new sense of hope creeping up in her systems.

"Hey, Terrabyte!" Q-Boom called out; her translator giving her a Queens accent similar to several Decepticon soldiers, "You remember the mech I was tellin' you about? Well here he is! My doctor!"

Q-Boom had her whole arm in the air as she gestured at Wheeljack, who smiled behind his facemask and waved at Terrabyte.

"He was the only one brave enough to work on me the whole time! Everyone else thought I was gonna explode them, but not Wheeljack!" The pride with which Q-Boom said this showed she highly respected Wheeljack; maybe even considered him a friend.

"I beg your pardon?" Ratchet snapped; affronted, "I was in your room as well!"

"Ah, you just read the monitors!" Q-Boom waved away Ratchet's defense, "Wheeljack actually worked on the stuff that was broken in me! That makes him braver than you! Wheeljack is the bravest Autobot on the whooooole ship!"

"LOL!" Terrabyte laughed goodnaturedly.

"Is it safe yet?" Phobia asked; her voice clear despite her face being buried in the little seeker's cockpit.

"You know, they coulda killed us an orn ago if they really felt like it," Q-Boom reasoned, "Don't you get it, death breath? We're Autobots now! Wheeljack even said he was gonna adopt me, and Terrabyte's already got adopted. I sure don't envy her though! Being adopted by Sunstreaker! I think I'd rather chew off my own wings!"

Terrabyte cringed. If it was one thing Q-Boom had always been known for back at the foundling home, it was her big mouth! Q-Boom always just said whatever came to mind, and trying to get her to keep a secret was like trying to get a Junkion to take a shower!

Despite the awkwardness though, Terrabyte was still happy she could share this moment with her friends. Secretly she was thrilled that Q-Boom was going to be adopted by an Autobot on board the Ark. She didn't know what that meant for Phobia or Honey Venom, but at least Terrabyte was guaranteed one friend would remain in her life.

Still, without Honey Venom something was missing. Terrabyte never told anyone this, because most non-carriers wouldn't understand, but she had initiated the loyalty bond shortly after she met Honey Venom. Honey Venom was one of the oldest and wisest sparklings in the foundling home, and she had saved Terrabyte's life by allowing her into the Sigma Sisters despite the fact that Terrabyte no longer had access to her sigma ability. To Terrabyte, Honey Venom's word was law. The factions could talk about Optimus Prime or Megatron all they wanted, but for Terrabyte it would always be Honey's Venom's voice she listened to above all others. Only now, that voice was silent, and her new boss was Sunstreaker. It was hard for her to deal with that.

"The catalogue has been completed," Perceptor announced as he and Skyfire lifted themselves out of the alcove they had been working in, "Nearly every earth vehicle and appliance is here for your inspection. Which sparkling would like to go first?"

"Me! Me!" Q-Boom insisted as she shoved her way past the much larger Autobots.

Sunstreaker shook his head at the brash little seeker. He could tell already that having her on board the ship was going to present problems. At the very least, he knew the Decepticons would try to steal her, and considering she was a Decepticon at spark, she might go with them willingly.

Q-Boom instantly went to the list of military jets and combed through every one with comments such as "Too big" or "Stupid code name" or "Too fat". She skimmed quickly and barely looked at each one before moving on to the next one. Q-Boom scanned every jet at least once before she finally settled on the Yak-28; a small Soviet bomber with air missiles attached near the wings. The jet was also known as...

"The Brewer! It's perfect!" Q-Boom said triumphantly, "I almost went with the Backfire, but I'm too little to pull off that look. Come on, hurry up! Scan me! Scan me!"

"Are you sure you want to go with that one?" Ratchet asked her gently, "It seems a bit aggressive-"

"Of course it's aggressive!" Q-Boom cut him off, "I'm a seeker; a war make! I'm gonna be the best aerial strike Autobot you've ever seen! When I'm an adult, you'll wonder what you ever did without me!"

"She'll get along  _real well_  with the Aerialbots," Cliffjumper muttered under his breath.

Shrugging his shoulders, Wheeljack set up the scan to give Q-Boom the Yak-28 alt mode she wanted. She giggled as the scans tickled her frame, and then felt her internal components shift to accommodate the new alt mode.

" _Wow_...Can I transform now?" Q-Boom asked eagerly.

"Wait until everyone has their alt modes, and then we'll go outside and test them," Wheeljack admonished affectionately.

"Okay," Q-Boom readily agreed; something Terrabyte wasn't used to seeing in the seeker femme.

"Alright then, who wants to choose their alt mode next?" Perceptor asked.

Terrabyte and Phobia looked at each other for a moment; neither one willing to overstep their bounds with the other. Finally, and reluctantly, Phobia went next.

"Um, sir…" Phobia leaned in to whisper in Perceptor's audio receptions, " _I need a special size._ "

Perceptor scanned Phobia and found that, indeed, she was a car-former that required more room in the back than in the front.

"Alright then little one, I'll just take away all sedans and race cars. I'm sure you'll find something to your liking. Perhaps a truck or a station wagon," Perceptor suggested.

Phobia scanned each alt mode choice carefully. She would stare at them for a minute before shaking her head and moving on to the next one. She was very methodical, and quite slow, about her choice. Q-Boom shouted "Hurry up!", and several Autobots seemed to wish to say the same thing. Terrabyte remained impassive as Phobia combed through the alts.

Finally, she found a car that seemed agreeable to her.

"This one looks just like my alt mode back on Cybertron!" Phobia commented, "May I choose this alt mode, Prime sir?"

Optimus looked down at her and smiled behind his face mask. She might've been born a Decepticon, but that didn't stop her from being a polite and considerate sparkling. Tearjerker had clearly been a positive influence on her. The only problem was the  _specific_  alt mode she was asking for.

"Are you sure you want this one?" Optimus asked patiently, "It has a rather dubious reputation with humans."

"Please?" Phobia asked; her Crimson optics sparkled with innocence and longing.

"Well, alright. I suppose it is a safe alt mode, and it doesn't go very fast," Optimus acquiesced.

"Great!" Phobia exclaimed happily as she ran over to Wheeljack to be scanned.

Wheeljack typed in a few codes on Teletran 1, and it started scanning the new alt mode into Phobia's core programming. Before long she had the alt mode she wanted; a black hearse with blue-grey curtains.

"Hey, cool! It's a cadaver-mobile!" Q-Boom exclaimed as she pointed to the picture of Phobia's new alt mode.

Phobia just turned around and gave Q-Boom an annoyed look. She hated it when Q-Boom called her names, but of course that never stopped the seekerling before.

Finally, it was time for Terrabyte to choose an alt mode. She patted the compartment on her left hip to calm her nerves. Her cassettes sent their support through their private bond, and she stepped forward to look through the appliances in the alt mode catalogue.

The selection looked more like a gift catalogue or a sale paper than an alt mode selector. There were radios, computers, cassette players, and game systems! There were so many options. Terrabyte needed to choose carefully. Sunstreaker was her guardian now, but that could change if he wasn't happy with her, so she needed to pick an alt mode that would please him. She didn't want to see him angry.

Terrabyte discarded the boom boxes right away. Sunstreaker hated loud music, and turning into a device that amplified music seemed wasteful and unwise. She looked at the desktop computers. She had turned into something similar on Cybertron, but she didn't like the lack of mobility. She wanted to find something on this list that could move under its own power.

Finally she found something! This device had a sleek round design, it was able to move about freely, and she even found an item her symbiotes could transform into in order to remain inside of her. It was perfect!

Terrabyte tapped the icon and Teletran immediately began to scan her before the Autobots realized she had activated the scanner by herself! Her body contorted as she was reformatted to fit her new form! The Autobots gasped, and Sunstreaker face palmed when he saw what Terrabyte had done!

"So um...Can we go outside and transform now?" Q-Boom asked; oblivious to the adults' concerns.

"Did she just…?" Powerglide asked incredulously.

"She did," Ratchet confirmed, "Terrabyte just turned herself into a robot vacuum cleaner. Apparently the cassettes have been reformatted to look like dust filters."

"Oh, great!" Sunstreaker exclaimed sarcastically, "Now she'll never be taken seriously by the enemy! Seriously, have you ever heard anyone say 'Run for your lives! It's the Roomba!'? I certainly haven't. Not to mention we now have Filterbots! That's just sad! Is there any way to reverse this, Ratchet?"

"Not until she needs to adapt to a different planet," Ratchet replied; trying to appear serious while hiding how much he wanted to laugh, "I'm sure it'll be fine. I've never met a carrier that looked threatening in their alt mode anyway. Even Soundwave is just a cassette player, and Blaster is just a boom box."

Sunstreaker grumbled, but there wasn't much he could do. Terrabyte looked dejected as she walked outside to try out her new form with her friends. She had chosen that alt mode to make Sunstreaker happy. She knew how much he liked having a clean room, and now it would be easier than ever to keep their quarters dust free. Terrabyte sighed and tried to tell herself that some mechs are just impossible to please.


	8. Somewhere To Belong

**Chapter 8**

**Somewhere To Belong**

Optimus Prime looked over the list of mechs that wanted to adopt Phobia. He had to take several names off the list because of the little leech's fears of them. Skyfire had been particularly disappointed when he tried to bond with the sparkling only for her to scream and run away because he was so large. Apparently she was scared of large mechs.

Skyfire had really wanted to adopt one of the sparklings. He was weary of the war despite being involved in it less than the other Autobots. He had only been an Autobot for a few years, and had spent millions of years frozen in ice on earth, so the idea of factions, starvation, and painful deaths was hard for Skyfire to swallow. He thought an innocent sparkling might bring some peace to his new existence.

At first Skyfire had tried to adopt Q-Boom, but Wheeljack had already expressed interest, and the little seeker wanted to be with Wheeljack. Skyfire was more than a little disappointed. He was one of the only other fliers on the ship (the others being Powerglide and the 5 Aerialbots). He was sure a seekerling would want to be with her own kind. Someone who would understand her urge for the sky, the need for physical proximity to her loved ones and the need for cleanliness. Apparently though, none of that mattered to Q-Boom. She wanted Wheeljack as her guardian.

That was when he tried to adopt Phobia, but she wouldn't come near him! Optimus had known that Terrabyte was a fearful little femme, but he didn't appreciate how well she controlled it until he saw Phobia's reactions to everyone. She was younger than the others, and she had no real control over her emotions. When she was happy, she laughed. When she was sad, she cried. When she was fearful, she screamed and ran. Phobia hid nothing from those around her.

Seeing the three sparklings interact with each other had been an interesting sight as well. Optimus remembered walking in on them in the medbay, where they were all gathered around Honey Venom's berth and talking about old times. They almost looked like war veterans instead of small children.

Q-Boom had done most of the talking with Phobia interjecting every now and then. It was odd to see how quiet Terrabyte was, even around her best friends. Her filter cassettes would squawk or bark every now and then, and Terrabyte would translate for them. The sparklings always made sure to include the Filterbots in their chatter. Still, despite the silence, Terrabyte seemed more at peace with her friends than anywhere else. Optimus was grateful they had managed to stay together.

* * *

Wheeljack was working on a blender for Carly. He had a new invention that would extract the nutrients from food and break it down into its base components, and he wanted to install it in Carly's blender. Okay, so maybe it wasn't  _for_  Carly, but he did have her permission.

Q-Boom sat on one of his countertops and kicked her feet back and forth, her wings perked up in curiosity as she watched him work. She was surprisingly quiet; likely because she was enthralled with what Wheeljack was doing.

Wheeljack turned a few screws to tighten the device to the blender, checked the connections to make sure it was secure, and folded in a few wires for appearance sake. When he was satisfied with his work, he turned on the contraption.

 **BOOM**!

The room was covered in shrapnel and black soot, and Wheeljack coughed behind his facemask. He fluttered his optics a few times, and then carefully looked over at his sparkling. If she got hurt because of him he would never forgive himself!

Q-Boom was grinning broadly as she looked back at Wheeljack despite the fact that she was filthy and had pieces of the invention in her joints!

"Wow! You can make a blender  _explode_?" Q-Boom asked in awed excitement, "You're a genius! Can you make a muffler explode, too? That would be funny!"

"Well, Q-Boom, it wasn't supposed to explode-" Wheeljack started to say.

"Oh, we could make a car explode!" Q-Boom interrupted him, "Or a toaster! I don't know what a toaster is for, but they look really neat! It's a shame Megatron only wants stupid soldiers that don't question anything. Optimus Prime is smart because he has scientists like you! Megatron killed most of the scientists except for a few he liked. Moron!"

Wheeljack smiled fondly at the little sparkling as she prattled on; her mind going in seemingly random directions.

"So what else have you invented besides cool explosives?" Q-Boom asked.

"Well, I designed and built the Dinobots," Wheeljack thought off the top of his head.

"The...die-no bots?" Q-Boom asked; confused, "Are those Autobots with mutant sparks like mine? Can their sparks live without their bodies like mine can?"

"No, Q-Boom, the Dinobots are my creations," Wheeljack said cheerfully.

"You have  _creations_?" Q-Boom gasped as if it were the most shocking thing in the universe.

"Yeah," Wheeljack replied, more than happy to explain, "Their alt modes are based off of an ancient extinct predator type on earth called dinosaurs! The Dinobots are much stronger than most other Autobots, but unfortunately they aren't very smart yet. I'm sure they'll catch up given time."

"You have creations?" Q-Boom repeated, since that was clearly the only part she cared about, "How many are there?"

"There are 5," Wheeljack replied patiently, "Their names are Grimlock, Slag, Sludge, Swoop, and Snarl. Grimlock is the leader of their group. They're not even a quarter vorn old yet, but they've already made a lot of progress in social and cognitive development."

"So I have brothers?" Q-Boom asked with gleeful anticipation, "Wow! I've never had brothers before! Will they wanna play with me? We can run around and pretend to pillage cities and fight each other and sleep in a pile like my sisters and I used to do! This is gonna be so great! Can any of them fly? Do any of them have wings like mine?"

"Whoa! Slow down, Q!" Wheeljack held up his hands to get her to stop talking, "One: I guess technically they are your brothers. Two: I don't know if they'll want to play or not, but maybe. I'm pretty sure Slag will want to fight if nothing else. Three: Yes, Swoop can fly and has a rather large wingspan. He's not a seeker, but he's probably the closest thing we have to one."

"Can I meet them now?" Q-Boom asked eagerly; flying around Wheeljack's head like a mosquito searching for a spot to land.

"Um, well, I don't see why not-" Wheeljack said, but was cut off when Q-Boom grabbed his servo and tried to physically pull him out the door so she could meet the Dinobots.

This was going to be a long day for Wheeljack…

* * *

Inferno and Red Alert stared at the monitors from their shared office. Security detail was always less boring when they had the same shift, as the two best friends would at least have each other to talk to during the monotonous periods of time. The only problem was that Red Alert had been even more anxious than usual since the four sparklings came aboard the ship. He didn't trust anything he didn't know and couldn't predict, and that included the sparklings.

"I think I saw something there!" Red Alert suddenly shouted, "Rewind and freeze frame! I want a zoom in on that upper left hand corner!"

"Red, it's just Spike working on a leaky coolant line," Inferno said with an amused smile, "Relax. We haven't had any Decepticon activity in almost a month. Enjoy it while it lasts."

"That's just what they want us to do!" Red Alert snapped; his blue optics wild and his hands gesticulating, "They're waiting for us to let our guard down, but we can't lose our diligence for even a second! Every sight and sound must be recorded, and we must remain ever vigilant to the dangers all around us!"

"Hello!" A loud girly voice called out from the other side of the room; causing Red Alert to shriek and fall out of his chair.

"Ahh! Invasion!" Red Alert screamed.

"Well, hello there little one," Inferno said jovially as he looked down at the mouthless yet somehow smiling face of Phobia.

Phobia giggled when she saw Red Alert scramble to get back up in his chair. Her laughter died when she saw the furious glare the white an red mech was giving her. She looked up at him for a moment, and Inferno was sure she would run away given her reputation, but instead she walked over to a monitor right next to where Red Alert was sitting.

"What are those?" Phobia asked as she pointed to something on the screen.

"Why do you want to know?" Red Alert asked suspiciously.

"Because there's nothing like them in other buildings I've been to," Phobia answered innocently, "What it is for?"

"Those are air vents," Red Alert reluctantly replied, "We keep them to circulate air in the facility. Kind of like a mech's air vents, only they're for the ship."

"The ship needs to  _breathe_?" Phobia whispered incredulously.

"No! The  _humans_  need to breathe!" Red Alert slapped his forehead at this sparkling's illogical thinking, "That's why we installed them."

"What's a...hu-man?" Phobia stumbled over the unfamiliar word.

"They're small organic life forms that kind of look like tiny Cybertronians wearing fabric," Inferno answered cordially, "They're just a couple feet shorter than you."

"Oh," Phobia said seriously; an effect that was ruined by her cuteness, "Are they strong? Or smart? Do they do anything?"

"Humans are the dominant species," Red Alert fielded the question, "They are not as advanced as Cybertronians, but their species isn't very old. Given time, there's no telling what they'll accomplish. Speaking of accomplishments, that door was locked. How did you get in here without setting off the alarms?"

"I crawled through the vent," Phobia said as she pointed above the door to the open air vent.

Inferno laughed like there was no tomorrow, and Red Alert looked like he was going to go into stasis lock after seeing his precious security room breached by a sparkling in an air vent! At least, that was what Inferno thought his friend was thinking, until he heard what Red Alert said next…

"Sparklet, you shouldn't crawl up in those things! You could get hurt! There are motors and all sorts of nasty stuff that could cut your soft protoform to ribbons! Don't  _ever_  do that again! Promise me, sparklet. No more crawling through the vents!"

"I'm sorry…" Phobia said softly as she looked down at the floor, "Wait a minute! Why is that a problem?" She suddenly asked.

"What?" Red Alert asked dumbly.

"I'm an energon leech, silly!" Phobia stated as if that explained everything, but she continued by saying, "If I die then you should be happy! I'm a bad femme. Ratchet is the only one that lets me feed off of him, but even he doesn't want me. He says he's too busy being a medic and has no time for me, but I know that's only part of it. I'm a leech, and leeches are bad. That's why my mommy left me at the founding home when I was born. She was a pleasure bot, and apparently they're bad, too. One of the caretakers said my daddy was a customer of hers, but I don't know what customer means. I think it's bad, though. You should let me crawl in the vents, 'cause I'm a security risk and I'll probably kill you if you let me."

Phobia wasn't upset as she said these cryptic words. She just stated them like a fact, and that was what really got to the pair of security officers. It was breaking the older mechs' sparks. Phobia thought she was unlovable, and no Autobot could let such a pitiful state of existence stand!

"Sparklet, you are not bad!" Red Alert said resolutely, "If your creator thought you were bad, then she was just an ignorant glitch that didn't deserve you! I'm sure there's lots of 'Bots on this ship who would be honored to have you as their sparkling. You're a good kid."

"But…" This was where Phobia hesitated, but these mechs seemed nice enough, and she should be honest with them, so she finally said, "...But the other mechs are scary. Ratchet wasn't scary, but he won't take me! If I go with the wrong adult, then I'll get reformatted into a pleasure bot! That's why Tearjerker took us away! A couple of Decepticon soldiers came to Altihex looking for orphan femmes to upgrade them into adults for pleasure bots. Tearjerker said it was very bad. When the bombs went off, Tearjerker said it was a good distraction so we could escape the bad Decepticons. I miss Tearjerker…"

Small lines of coolant were streaking the little sparkling's blue-grey face. She hadn't cried until the moment she mentioned Tearjerker. Tearjerker had been the only adult that ever cared about them, and she was gone! Still, Tearjerker was an Autobot, and these guys were Autobots. Maybe she wasn't being fair to them. They saved her and her sisters. Surely Ratchet and the security mechs couldn't be the only good ones. She wiped away her tears and promised herself that she was going to try to fit in with these mechs. After all, if Terrabyte could survive  _Sunstreaker_ , then anything was possible!

* * *

Skyfire was alone in the medical bay while Ratchet got some much needed recharge. There were other Autobots that could have taken over for Ratchet, but Skyfire had nothing to do in the labs since his yeast cultures needed time to grow. Yes, his life had become staring at yeast and waiting to taxi around the Autobots. The sad part was he welcomed it, because it beat fighting the Decepticons.

For the umpteenth time that evening he stared at the berth containing the golden colored femmeling Honey Venom. Not much was known about her except what her friends told, but Ratchet had figured out a few surprising details about their guest.

For one, her golden color wasn't the result of nanites or gold paint as they assumed. Her armor was infused with electrum; a substance harder than almost anything in the universe and unstable in its purest form. The stuff cost a fortune, and no one would use it on a temporary sparkling protoform unless they had credits to burn.

From this discovery alone the Autobots had figured something out about this femme; before she was orphaned her creators were very wealthy. She might've even been a member of the aristocracy! Ratchet had asked Mirage if he had heard of Honey Venom, but he had not. He didn't recognize her either, but he said her frame looked like a type that was popular among Helex royalty. That was unusual, because Helex was on the other side of the planet from Altihex!

How did Honey Venom wind up orphaned on the other side of Cybertron? There were no records other than a group of neutrals found her as a tiny newspark among a mass grave of dead soldiers. She wasn't even old enough to talk yet, and since sparklings learned to talk within an orn of birth, that told them that she was brand new when they found her!

Ironhide had made the comment that it was a wonder the Decepticons didn't skin the plating right off the sparkling and sell it for energon. The thought of someone ripping apart a live sparkling made Skyfire want to purge his fuel tanks! He didn't think he'd ever get used to the atrocities of this war!

Skyfire was grateful to the Autobots for accepting him as one of their own, but he still felt that he didn't fit in, and oftentimes didn't understand the way they thought. He was a pacifist during the Golden Age, and yet he had taken up arms first with the Decepticons and then with the Autobots. He felt like such a hypocrite!

Skyfire also didn't have a lot of friends aboard the Ark. Sure, he would talk to mechs if they said hello first, but he didn't seek them out. He had a professional relationship with Perceptor, and he would sometimes assist Wheeljack or take over for Ratchet in the medbay, but none of those Autobots were his friends. Simply put, he didn't trust himself to trust others. After Starscream's betrayal he wasn't sure if he could trust his own judgment about other mechs' intentions.

He polished a scanning lense and searched the room for other things to do when he heard a posh feminine voice say "Excuse me sir, but are you Skyfire, the scientist from Iacon?"

Skyfire turned around, and he saw the gold sparkling sitting up on her berth and looking at him expectantly. Her optics were red as human blood, and her face was inquisitive as she regarded Skyfire.

"Um, yes, I am Skyfire," Skyfire replied politely, "How are you feeling Honey Venom?"

She tilted her head, as if trying to absorb his words. Her eyes seemed to penetrate past his armor and into his spark. It was surprisingly disconcerting considering she was just a sparkling.

"Hm...So I am dead?" Honey Venom asked in an analytical tone.

"Excuse me?" Skyfire asked; confused.

"You died over two million years ago, even before the war broke out," Honey Venom explained her line of thinking, "I read all about you. Your work was impressive but overshadowed by the fact that your research partner, the future Commander Starscream, was charged with your murder. Many believe he got off easy when he was acquitted. Given his military record, they might have been right. So tell me, are we in the matrix, the well of allsparks, the smelting pit, or some other form of purgatory the living couldn't even imagine?"

Skyfire was taken aback! Honey Venom seemed perfectly accepting of the assumption that she was dead. To be fair, her age might have made her naive, but Skyfire didn't believe that was the case. Her voice was intelligent and borderline condescending. The accent reminded him of Perceptor, but there was a coldness to her tone that Perceptor never had. There was also something about the way she looked at him that made him uneasy. He had seen that look before, but he couldn't remember where…

The shuttle shook his thoughts away! She was just a sparkling! She harbored no ill will to him or anyone else. Besides, it was clear she thought she was facing either her final judgment or her final reward. There was no need to prolong her nervousness.

"You know Skyfire," Honey Venom began again, "I never believed in the whole life after death thing before, but seeing you here with me is irrefutable proof. I concede defeat."

"Honey Venom, you are not dead," Skyfire gently told her, "I am alive. I was found by the Decepticons frozen in ice."

"So we are aboard a Decepticon vessel?" Honey Venom asked; her tone completely unchanged.

"No," Skyfire corrected her, "I joined the Autobots shortly after I was unfrozen. We are aboard the Ark."

"I am not familiar with that ship's designation," Honey Venom said thoughtfully, "I must have been in stasis lock for quite some time. Tell me, did anyone else survive the crash? Are my friends alive?"

"Yes, they are all alive and well," Skyfire smiled as he told her the welcome news.

"And we are absolutely not dead?" Honey Venom asked to be certain.

"No, you are not dead," Skyfire chuckled.

"Good, because I would hate to think of having this horrible pain in my spark for the rest of eternity!" Honey Venom exclaimed as she clutched her chest.

Skyfire couldn't laugh. He knew she was trying to lighten the mood, but the fact was that her spark had been weak ever since they found her on board Tearjerker. She was dying, and Ratchet despite his best efforts didn't know how to fix her. She and the others all had weak sparks due to being in stasis lock for so long, but while the other sparklings recovered Honey Venom only got worse. Nobody knew what to do for her, and many were skeptical that she would even wake up at all!

Just then the medbay doors opened and Sunstreaker walked in; his body covered in dents and scrapes!

"What happened?" Skyfire asked his teammate.

"Got into a fight with a sparkling and lost," Sunstreaker deadpanned, "Another night terror."

Skyfire glanced over at Honey Venom, and then did a double take. Something in her face darkened when she saw Sunstreaker! Her ruby optics shone with a fury Skyfire didn't understand.

"Excuse me, sir?" Honey Venom addressed Sunstreaker in a deceptively polite tone, "You said night terrors? As in, Terrabyte's night terrors?"

"Yeah, so?" Sunstreaker asked, and then saw who had addressed him, "Hey, you're Honey Venom! Terrabyte's been coming to your bedside every day since she onlined. She's been really worried about you! By the way, my name is-"

"Sunstreaker," she cut him off, "You and your brother Sideswipe are frontline warriors for the Autobots. You specialize in jet judo and hand-to-hand combat, and you were both gladiators in the pits of Kaon prior to your rise in the Autobot ranks. You were also a painter under an assumed identity."

Honey Venom recited his statistics as if she were quoting them from a military journal, and in fact, she was.

"How did you know all that?" Sunstreaker asked dubiously.

"Military history is my favorite subject," Honey Venom said; her voice dripping with false sweetness. Then in a more serious voice she said "I would often trade my energon rations for books and data pads. Reading kept me sane, and reading about different officers in military factions kept me grounded. It reminded me of where I was and what survival would cost. I know your record Sunstreaker, but I know about you from more than just books. I am truly grateful that you and the other Autobots have taken us in, and I will serve in any capacity the Prime sees fit. However, I must warn you of one thing."

Sunstreaker raised an optic ridge, but didn't interrupt her.

"Stay away from Terrabyte," Honey Venom said in a low voice that was threatening despite her small size and pretty frame, "She's suffered enough. Leave her alone."

Sunstreaker grit his dental plates and swiftly made his way to the medical berth! Who did this little punk think she was to threaten him like that? It would've been cute if she didn't sound so serious!

"Just who do you think you are-?" Sunstreaker began, but had to stop when the little sparkling passed out from shock when he got too close!

Skyfire was immediately at her berthside trying to stabilize her vital signs! The yellow Lamborghini backed away from the medbay, deciding that he would wait for Ratchet or another medic to treat him (preferably another medic). This was getting weird! This was the friend Terrabyte worried for so long about? She had the crimson optics of a Decepticon and the demeanor of a spider toying with a fly! Still, she was just a sparkling, and that complicated matters. Maybe she only acted that way because she was raised a Decepticon? Maybe she could learn better.

One thing bothered him though. Why was Honey Venom so insistent that he stay away from Terrabyte? No way was he going to leave his own little sparkling alone, but still something seemed off. Why was Honey Venom so worried? Was she just jealous of Sunstreaker, or was there something more he wasn't seeing?


	9. Complications

**Chapter 9**

**Complications**

The next few days had seen the finalization of the adoptions for the three remaining sparklings. Q-Boom was adopted by Wheeljack, and Optimus wasn't surprised by this in the least. They had an understanding with each other that seemed to defy all logic, and for whatever reason she loved hanging out with the Dinobots (even though the first time they met, Grimlock grabbed her wing wrong and nearly ripped it out). The six young 'Bots were always together during the day, and Swoop was happy their family had another flier! It seemed Q-Boom was adjusting to life on the Ark quite well.

The one that didn't make much sense was Phobia's adopter. After Inferno and Red Alert had brought her to Prime stating that she needed a safe place to stay, Prime was sure that Inferno was going to adopt her. It made sense. Kids (both Cybertronian and human) loved him, and he was a giving and selfless Autobot. However, it was actually Red Alert that wanted the sparkling as his own! This was more than a little surprising. Red Alert wasn't the most stable mech despite being uniquely qualified for his job, and the idea of him allowing an energon leech to feed off him was shocking! It required a level of trust no one thought he was capable of possessing!

Skyfire finally got his wish to adopt when Optimus Prime granted him custody of Honey Venom. Optimus actually felt guilty about giving her to him though. Soon she would be dead, he was sure of it, and Skyfire would be able to do nothing more than helplessly watch his new daughter fade out of existence. Was it really worth it to give Skyfire such a temporary adoption?

Honey Venom was asleep most of the time, and Skyfire would spend joors in the medbay keeping vigil over her. When she was awake, she was either with her friends or else in Skyfire's lab helping him with a project. She showed a great deal of respect to the Valkyrie shuttle, but no real affection. Again, it made sense. She was older than the other sparklings, so likely she would never be able to see her guardian as a true parent. Optimus sighed. At least she wouldn't be alone in her final cycles.

Orientation for the new parents had gone about as well as expected, which is to say not well at all. Sunstreaker, Wheeljack, Skyfire, and Red Alert had gathered in the medbay with Ratchet. The sparklings were all talking and Terrabyte was showing them a toy Sunstreaker had bought her; an easel with large sheets of paper and a paint set. Honey Venom was awake for once, and the other sparklings seemed to be calmer in her presence.

Sunstreaker felt like he was in The Pit hanging out with these mechs! Ratchet was their instructor, there was no getting around him, but the other three weren't exactly his best friends. Red Alert got on his nerves, Wheeljack would talk about sciencey stuff he didn't care about, and he didn't know Skyfire at all! The problem wasn't this meeting though, it was the fact that their sparklings were all friends, so he would have to see a lot more of these mechs.

"I have reviewed each sparkling's case, and I must say that each of you is very noble for taking care of younglings with such specific needs," Ratchet began encouragingly.

"What do you mean  _specific needs_?" Wheeljack asked curiously.

"I'm glad you asked," Ratchet said as he walked up to Wheeljack, "For starters, your sparkling is a seeker frame type, and as a seeker she will require special attention from now until full maturity."

Wheeljack raised his optic ridges in confusion. There was nothing weird about being a seeker! So she had to go outside a little more than most to fly? That wasn't a big deal. Of course, there was more.

Ratchet continued by saying "One thing that may be detrimental to Q-Boom is her need to trine. Seekers trine when they are younglings so that their sparks and processors will be stable when they are adults. Q-Boom is going to be raised as an Autobot, and finding two Autobot trinemates at the exact moment she'll need them is no easy task. I dare say it is borderline impossible. Seekers are arranged to be trined by their creators and their creators' trinemates when they are still very young. Sometimes before they are even born! I don't know how you are going to provide this for her, Wheeljack. If she can't be trined, then she can't be given an adult upgrade, and an adult spark in a sparkling frame eventually grows too weak and dies from lack of nutrition. We have to figure out what we're going to do for her."

Wheeljack looked crestfallen. He looked over at his happy sparkling as she waved her hands and fluttered her wings while she spoke to the others. It sounded like she was telling the story about how Slag got his horns stuck on a sliding door the day before last. He vented some air and softly asked the question that was on his mind.

"What if we give her the upgrade without trining her?" Wheeljack asked, "How bad could it be?"

"Wheeljack!" Ratchet yelled at the engineer, "Trineless seekers go insane, and in some cases kill themselves! In other cases they kill everything else around them! If Q-Boom doesn't have the spark bond of a trine she will not be able to function! Why do you think selfish seekers like Starscream or Sunstorm belong to trines? Because they physically  _need_  them!"

"What if she tries to go with the 'Cons to get a trine?" Red Alert asked suddenly, "We might lose her to the 'Cons just so she won't be alone! Either way she'll try to kill us all! We need to get her out of the Ark now!"

"Absolutely not!" Wheeljack defended his sparkling, "Q-Boom is a good kid, even if she is hyperactive!"

"Enough!" Ratchet threw his arms between the fighting fathers, "We will discuss this in greater detail later. For now, I need to get back to the needs of the other sparklings in our care. Red Alert, please listen to me because this is important."

Red Alert straightened up and bristled at Ratchet's patronizing tone.

"Red Alert, it is commendable that you took in Phobia, but she has been coming into my medbay complaining of dizziness and tank cramps," Ratchet informed him with a stern expression, "You must remember that you are not only Phobia's guardian, but also her food source. What you eat, she eats. Therefore, I must insist that you stop drinking high grade. Don't even drink a little! Phobia is too small to process it, and if you have it in your system then she will have it in hers as well. Promise me, Red! No. More. High grade."

Red's optics went wide with shock! No more high grade energon? How was he supposed to calm his fritzing circuits now? He had heard that when human women were pregnant they weren't allowed to intoxicate themselves, but he never imagined that it would happen to him!

"Fine, Ratchet, no more high grade…" Red Alert muttered in discontent.

He would make this sacrifice for Phobia because she needed someone in her life to protect her from those that would harm her, but it was going to be slagging tough! If Inferno drank in front of him it would be everything he could do to keep from knocking the cube out of his friend's servos!

Ratchet then turned to Sunstreaker, and he looked back at the medic with a resigned expression. There was nothing Ratchet could tell him that he didn't already know. He had been raising his sparkling for nearly two earth months now, and he had learned a lot about her. Mostly that she never got a decent night's recharge due to nightmares from the war. She also had trouble showing her emotions, and she was afraid of most adults. It was strange that her fear never fully went away, but she was dealing with them better now.

"Sunstreaker, I'm sorry," Ratchet said solemnly, and Sunstreaker braced himself for the worst, "But the part I need to fix Terrabyte's vocalizer is impossible to replace. The technology for it simply isn't made anymore! The best I could do was to build an adult vocalizer for when she's upgraded in a few vorns. I'm sorry."

"Are you kidding?" Sunstreaker scoffed, "I thought you were gonna tell me something serious! I don't care if her voice doesn't sound female or even if it sounds like a radio being tortured! I can live with that! After everything that's happened, I thought you were going to tell me she was dying!"

Sunstreaker grinned broadly at the not-so-bad news, but then felt guilty when he saw Skyfire hang his head at the comment. Sunstreaker had forgotten that one of the sparklings  _was_  actually dying! He didn't like Honey Venom, and he wasn't that fond of Skyfire, but he still didn't wish this on them. One was going to die, and the other was going to have to live with it. Sunstreaker would have to live with it as well. Terrabyte was going to be inconsolable if and when that gold femmeling died.

* * *

Q-Boom sat in the Dinobots' lair and watched cartoons with them. She thought it was so cool that her brothers had their own lair! She told Wheeljack that she wanted her berth in their lair so she wouldn't have to sleep in an orange room, but Wheeljack insisted that her berth be set up in his room (Sludge's tail wagged in his sleep, and Q-Boom could get knocked off the berth). Such a shame, the volcanic rock wall was so much cooler looking than orange!

After the cartoon went off an action movie came on. The explosions looked so big and cool! Q-Boom wanted to make explosions that big when she was older. At her current size she'd be lucky to blow a pothole in a mech's chassis! Obliterating your opponent was so much more useful than inconveniencing their medic with a single hole.

Slag stomped his feet when the bad guy tried to stab the hero in the back, and Snarl ate all the energon goodies before anyone else could get any!

"You snarl am greedy!" Grimlock scolded his brother.

"Me Snarl am just faster than you Grimlock," snarl said replied snidely.

"Hey! Those fighting words!" Grimlock yelled.

"Shut up! I can't hear the TV!" Q-Boom shouted over the sound of their argument.

"You Q-Boom come up here!" Swoop hollered from his spot on a perch in the ceiling, "TV not as loud, but neither am Dinobots!"

"Okay!" Q-Boom hollered back as she activated her thrusters.

Q-Boom and Swoop sat in companionable silence watching the movie as Grimlock and Snarl fought each other and Slag tried to see the TV screen over their flailing bodies! Sludge was already sniffing around for more snacks, but couldn't find anything.

The movie got to the part where the hero was pulling himself out of a burning car (that looked like Sunstreaker for some reason) and the damsel in distress was running to him in gratitude.

"My hero! You deserve a kiss!" The lady on the TV screen said in an overly dramatic voice.

Q-Boom leaned down to get a closer look at the humans on the screen. She tilted her head curiously, and then finally turned to face Swoop.

"What are they doing?" Q-Boom asked as she pointed to the make-out scene on the TV.

"Huh? Oh, they am kissing," Swoop said simply.

"What's kissing?" Q-Boom asked innocently.

"It where two humans push their mouth plates and glossa together," Swoop replied as if he were the ultimate source of human knowledge, "Humans do it to show they like each other."

"Oh. It looks gross," Q-Boom commented.

""Humans am gross sometimes," Swoop shrugged his wings, "Still, they am brave, too. Humans love us Autobots."

"Yeah?" Q-Boom asked casually, "They ever kiss you?"

"Hm...No, humans never kiss us Dinobots," Swoop admitted.

"But you said they liked you, and that humans kiss things they like, so what gives?" Q-Boom asked indignantly, "No humans are gonna snub my brothers! We gotta settle this right now!"

Swoop looked down at the TV to see a boring infomercial, and then at his brothers to see them in a battle royal while Sludge sucked on the energon dispenser nozzle like a long-necked hamster. Whatever Q-Boom had planned, it had to be more interesting than this.

* * *

Q-Boom and Swoop flew around and searched the Ark, and she had to remind him a few times that they were searching for humans. Q-Boom knew Prime kept a few of them stashed around here somewhere, and they were going to answer for the way they disrespected her Dino-brothers!

It took quite a bit of searching before they found Spike Witwicky in the rec room with Bumblebee and Cliffjumper. Swoop transformed into robot mode and the two strode into the rec room to confront the human and his minibot posse.

"Hey, human!" Q-Boom called out challengingly.

Spike looked at the sparkling standing beside him. While Bumblebee and Cliffjumper were looking at her like she was the cutest thing ever, Spike was already nervous. Despite being a Cybertronian toddler, she was already 8.5 feet tall, and the sharp blades on her head looked pretty threatening to the smaller human. Not to mention her 10 foot wingspan and huge red optics!

"Um, how can I help you?" Spike asked cautiously; sensing she wasn't happy with him for some reason.

"You slagging humans disrespected my brothers!" Q-Boom shouted.

"Hey kid, watch your mouth!" Cliffjumper chided her, "Nice sparklings don't use such language."

Q-Boom huffed out an intake of air in frustration, but didn't argue the point. She was here for the human, not the adults.

"So, are you gonna make it up to them or not?" Q-Boom asked Spike.

"Um, make what up to who?" Spike asked; confused and a little scared.

"You didn't show my Dino-brothers you like them!" Q-Boom accused him, "You  _do_  like them, don't you?"

"Of course!" Spike replied earnestly, "The Dinobots are our friends!"

"Then why us Dinobots recharge in old utility closet?" Swoop asked pointedly.

"Hey, I don't have anything to do with that!" Spike whined, "Just tell me what you want!"

"I want you to kiss Swoop!" Q-Boom demanded.

Spike froze, and his left eye twitched a little. Was she  _serious_? No way did Spike want to kiss that overgrown buzzard! Heck, he probably wouldn't want to kiss  _any_  of the Autobots! It was just too weird!

"I, um...I don't, um, really want to do that," Spike stammered, "But I do think of Swoop as a good friend, and uh-"

"If he's your friend then you have to kiss him!" Q-Boom insisted; her hands on her hips and her optics locked threateningly on Spike.

Swoop was leaning down by now to be at eye level with Spike. He was curious about what the human would do, and had to suppress a giggle at how in that moment Q-Boom sounded so much like Grimlock. Both were immature yet expected to be obeyed without question.

Spike looked back at Bumblebee and Cliffjumper to see if they would save him, but Cliffjumper had left and Bumblebee was staring in shock at the whole situation! Spike realized that he was on his own.

Groaning in resignation, Spike leaned up and pecked Swoop on the cheek and then backed away hoping the Dinobot wouldn't punch him or something!

"That ain't a kiss!" Q-Boom huffed, "I saw what a kiss looks like! It's when your mouth plates touch!"

" _What_?" Spike exclaimed incredulously, "Oh, no! I am not tongue kissing Swoop! That is where I draw the line!"

"So...It true? You no like Swoop? We not friends?" Swoop asked; his tone and face conveying genuine hurt.

"No! That's not what I mean at all!" Spike quickly exclaimed, "Um, I think you and your, um,  _sister_  have the wrong idea about what kissing actually means."

"We do?" Swoop asked.

"So what does it mean, flesh face?" Q-Boom asked, though in a more civil tone of voice.

"When two people kiss each other like that, it means they love each other, as in romantic love," Spike explained carefully, "I would only kiss my girlfriend Carly like that. Swoop is my friend, but not my, uh...Well you get the idea!"

"So you Spike am me Swoop's friend?" Swoop asked hopefully.

"Yeah, of course," Spike replied reassuringly, "Though I'm not sure how I feel about your sister right now."

"Hey, watch it, squish! I can still blow you to the matrix!" Q-Boom warned him, but it was clear she was kidding when she smiled back at him playfully.

The seekerling and Dinobot left without incident, but Spike felt like he'd need to wash his face and brush his teeth after this one! Wheeljack really needed to talk to Q-Boom more about human culture.


	10. Getting To Know You

**Chapter 10**

**Getting To Know You**

Inferno drove along at an unhurried pace as he and Phobia made their way to the toy store. Red Alert had monitor duty that day, so Inferno got to play the role of fun loving uncle. Naturally, he and Phobia were both loving the freedom of the open road.

Red Alert might've transformed into a car, but that didn't change the fact that he was a helicopter parent! Phobia couldn't play out of his sight, couldn't play with sharp objects, couldn't use the computer by herself, and frankly couldn't do anything fun without Red Alert having something to say about it! Inferno wouldn't be surprised if one day Red Alert just said  _slag it_  and wrapped Phobia in bubble wrap!

Phobia was a naturally curious child, but Inferno didn't think she took unnecessary risks. Of course, Red Alert believed that all risks were unnecessary where his little sparklet was concerned. It was a loving thought, but in practice it left the poor thing feeling smothered.

"I've never seen a blue sky before Inferno!" Phobia said as she pressed her face against his window, "In Altihex the sky was always either black or dark purple. That was because of the, um... _pollution_! That's what Tearjerker called it! Pollution!"

Phobia was so proud of herself for remembering that big word, and her red optics shone in place of an actual smile.

"So Inferno, how often do you have to save the humans from burning to death?" Phobia inquired.

"Pretty often actually," Inferno would've nodded if he'd been in robot mode, but his voice conveyed it well enough, "I'm sort of a celebrity here in Central City. So is Red Alert. The Protectobots come here sometimes too, but they prefer to hang around their headquarters in Portland."

"If the place is always catching fire, then why don't the humans just not have so much flammable stuff in their houses?" Phobia asked.

"Because that would be hard for them," Inferno replied at a level he hoped Phobia would understand, "You see sparklet, there's lots of stuff on this planet that attracts fire, and a lot of it is stuff the humans couldn't live without. At the very least, they would be a more primitive species if they did. Things like furniture, electricity, and stoves to cook their fuel on. They call it their fuel  _food_."

"I wish you hadn't mentioned that," Phobia said glumly, "I'm getting hungry, but Red Alert won't be finished working for 4 more groons."

"Well, why didn't you say so?" Inferno exclaimed amicably, "When we get to the toy store you can grab a snack off my arm! I don't mind."

"Have you been drinking bad energon?" Phobia asked; remembering Ratchet telling her to always ask from now on (stupid tank-ache!).

"Nope! Clean as a whistle!" Inferno replied as they pulled into the parking lot, "Hop on out so I can transform!"

Phobia skipped out of Inferno and waited while he turned back into robot mode. She had been consistently refueled since she woke up, and it made her giddy! She couldn't even recall a time in her life before this when she always had enough to eat. The Autobots were all so nice, and if she had to put up with an overprotective daddy and stuff catching fire everywhere, well then it was worth it.

She and Inferno had traveled three towns over from the base to get to this mall. It was the only one with an entrance big enough for Inferno to fit through in robot mode. Once inside, however, Inferno would have to wait in the hall while Phobia went into the store alone.

* * *

Sunstreaker thought he was prepared for this. He thought he was prepared for anything that came his way when it came to playdates for Terrabyte. He was wrong, and now he was paying for it.

When Wheeljack had asked if they could schedule a playdate for Terrabyte and his daughter Q-Boom, Sunstreaker mentally prepared for the worst. He prepared for the seeker to hate him or be scared. He prepared for Wheeljack to be working on an invention and for it to explode. He prepared for Q-Boom to explode. He even thought of the possibility that the Filterbots would escape through a time vortex, touch a bug, and then the entire universe would be ruled by monster bugs! He was sure he'd thought of everything.

He had. He had thought of everything. Everything except…

"Me Grimlock say me am oldest!"

"Nun-uh! I'm 4 and a half vorns old, and you aren't even a quarter vorn, so I'm the oldest!" Q-Boom refuted Grimlock.

Sunstreaker held his helm in his hands as he tried to block out the sounds of Wheeljack's arguing creations. Sunstreaker knew Wheeljack and Q-Boom would get on his nerves, but he didn't even consider the Dinobots showing up! Wheeljack had explained that Q-Boom saw them as her brothers because they were Wheeljack's creations. Sunstreaker honestly didn't care what that stupid sparkling thought! This was the most annoyed he had been in weeks!

Terrabyte just stared up at the towering behemoths; content to observe them. Sludge was the only one that seemed to notice Terrabyte, and he was uncomfortable with her scrutiny. Every now and then Sludge would shift his body so he didn't have to look at the white and black carrier, but eventually he would turn around and see her still staring at him.

Sunstreaker kept his optics on his own sparkling, unconcerned with what happened to the others. He was worried one of these overgrown lizards would step on her or bite her or something! How could Wheeljack possibly think it was a good idea to let these abominations anywhere near his seekerling, let alone someone else's sparkling?

And then it happened…

"Me Grimlock say me am oldest, and that makes me leader!" Grimlock yelled as he grabbed Q-Boom by the waist.

"Let go, you idiot!" Q-Boom shouted indignantly, "You're squeezing too tight!"

Grimlock ignored her, and after a few seconds he heard a beeping noise and saw her cockpit flash with a red light. And then…

 _Beep...Beep...Beep beep beep beebebebebebebeebee_   **BOOM**!

Q-Boom exploded in a hail of fiery shrapnel; a ball of fire engulfing Grimlock's hand! Grimlock looked first at his destroyed arm, then at the small holes in his chassis, and finally down at the floor where his sister's pieces lay.

" _No_! Me Grimlock kill her Q-Boom!" Grimlock wailed miserably as he looked down at a small puddle of energon and pieces of dark blue shrapnel.

Then the pieces started shaking, moving, and coming back together before their eyes! Q-Boom was reassembled in a standing position, and as sparks flew to close the gaps her standing body writhed like she was having a seizure! Her optics came online, and she stood there as if nothing had even happened.

Terrabyte walked up to Q-Boom and handed her a cube of energon without saying a word. Both femmes knew that when Q-Boom exploded most of her energon spilled onto the ground, and therefore had to be replaced quickly.

Everyone stared at Q-Boom. Wheeljack and Sunstreaker knew she had a bomb in her, but they never thought about what it would look like to see a Cybertronian grenade explode like that! The Dinobots were slack-jawed! They didn't know she could do that!

"Hey...Can you Q-Boom do that again?" Snarl finally said after an uncomfortably long silence.

"Sure," Q-Boom shrugged, "You got an energon cube?"

"Uh, me Grimlock will have to take rain check," Grimlock said as he held up his useless destroyed arm, "Me Grimlock have to go see him Ratchet. Be back soon. Bye."

Everyone else waved goodbye to Grimlock, and Sunstreaker hoped his little Terrabyte would get tired soon. He was already sick of everyone else's company.

* * *

Honey Venom sat up in the berth while Ratchet worked. He checked her vitals, but they had not changed. If anything they were getting worse! Honey Venom clearly had some sort of disease, and Ratchet only hoped it wasn't contagious to the other mechs and femmes aboard the ship. For the moment she seemed content to watch him work.

Ratchet placed his wrenches in precise order in the drawer. After all, each one had a different weight and feel when thrown at a stubborn patient's head. Fortunately, no one had bothered him today.

Honey Venom took note of every item Ratchet worked with. After a while he was feeling uneasy about her mentally cataloging his collection. For all he knew she could be a thief! She was a starving orphan before this, after all. Ratchet tried to think of something to say to get the sparkling's mind off his stuff.

"So...Skyfire has asked about how you're doing," Ratchet said; hoping she would say something and stop staring at his collection of spare parts.

"Skyfire?" Honey Venom took the bait, "He seems to be a gentle mech. How has he taken to the war?"

"Not very well, I'm afraid," Ratchet replied honestly, "Don't get me wrong, he does his job well, but he doesn't handle topics about the war well. You must understand, he lost his best friend to the war."

"We've all lost people," Honey Venom said curtly, "Heck, sometimes you even forget what they looked like."

"It's not like that," Ratchet clarified, "Skyfire's best friend is a Decepticon, but Skyfire is an Autobot. They are mortal enemies now, and Skyfire's ex-friend even shot him at point-blank range. He was lucky to survive."

"Oh…" Honey Venom seemed to think about this for a moment, "...I can't imagine how angry I would feel if one of my friends betrayed me like that. I wouldn't stop until they paid for what they did to me. Did Skyfire ever get his revenge?"

"He doesn't want revenge, Honey Venom," Ratchet said softly, "He wants peace. We all do, but most of us have come to accept that it might not happen in our lifetime. Skyfire doesn't know how to cope with that. That's why he wants to adopt you. He feels that the two of you can help each other to heal."

"Adopt me?" Honey Venom asked in mild surprise, "But I'm so...old. Most mechs only want newsparks. Why would he want  _me_?"

Ratchet chuckled and said "Because he wants to help. Skyfire is a decent mech, and I for one think you're lucky to have him as a guardian. When you get better you'll have all sorts of fun with him. Maybe he'll even let you help him with projects in his lab. Does that sound fun, little one?"

"Can I go to him now?" Honey Venom asked, "I want to be useful to Skyfire, and there's no time like the present. Tell him to expect me shortly."

"Are you joking?" Ratchet scoffed, "You're in no condition to leave this medbay!"

"I know sir, and I don't want to supersede your authority," Honey Venom began in a cautious tone of voice, "However, I must inform you that I won't get better, and if you insist that I have to stay here until I die, then there is no point in my being adopted, by Skyfire or anyone else."

Ratchet was taken aback by how calmly the sparkling described her own demise. The little femmes from the Altihex Foundling Home all seemed to share a resigned acceptance of bad circumstances. The only ones that even showed fear were Phobia and Terrabyte, but even Terrabyte had a way of hiding the feelings she had by never showing them on her face.

"Alright, Honey Venom," Ratchet finally conceded with a heavy spark, "If you want to help Skyfire in his lab, I'll tell him you're coming. However, you are in no condition to walk."

"I don't have antigravity boosters yet," Honey Venom informed him, "Decepticons don't get them until adulthood, and Autobots don't get them at all. I'll probably never fly."

"I know little one," Ratchet replied, "I'm going to show you an invention the humans came up with. Our friend Chip showed us this. It's called a wheelchair, and it helps immobile humans get around without the use of their legs."

"Humans that are broken continue to live without replacement parts?" Honey Venom asked curiously.

"Humans are very different from us," Ratchet replied fondly, "They have more limitations than we do, but they also work within those limitations to achieve great things. You will understand in time. Now, let me help you into your new wheelchair. This will help you conserve energy."

Honey Venom was gently placed in the chair, and she looked down at the joystick that controlled the transportation device. On the one hand this chair was pretty cool, but on the other hand she cursed her body for not being able to function on its own. She felt weak, and helpless, and she didn't understand why Skyfire or any other Autobot would want someone so useless in their ranks! She used to be the terror of Altehex Foundling Home, but now she felt like a shadow of her former glory.

* * *

Inferno watched as Phobia ran through the mall in awe and wonder of all the pretty things she could buy. He gave her a little money, and told her to be careful with how she spent it because she wouldn't get anymore for a long time. He hoped this would teach her responsibility as well as let her have a fun time.

He expected her to go to the toy store right away. To his surprise, however, she went inside a greeting card shop! Inferno bent down to look inside, but he couldn't see her once she went to the back aisles. He could still hear her though as she talked to herself and asked other customers questions about cards and stuffed animals she saw. Secretly Inferno was disappointed that she stopped here first since these places were so expensive, but he also knew she probably wasn't used to seeing so many pretty things. Her life up to this point had not been easy.

Phobia ran up to the cashier, who did a double take at seeing a six foot tall robot girl with no mouth and red optics!

"Um...C-can I help you?" The cashier stammered; fearing it was a Decepticon attack.

"Yes sir, I would like to purchase these two cards, and this book!" Phobia said proudly yet politely as she placed her items on the counter.

"Hm...Alright then...Your total is $14.95. Alright then, a $20...Your change is $5.05. Have a nice day."

"Thank you Mr. Human!" Phobia said happily as she took the shopping bag from him.

Phobia then skipped back over to where Inferno was leaning against a large pillar that supported the building. He smiled down at her and she beamed up at him.

"So, what did you buy, sparklet?" Inferno asked.

"I got these two cards because they were pretty!" Phobia said, "This one is shiny with gold stuff on it, and this one is sparkly!"

The shiny gold card was for a high school graduation, and the sparkly card had a big heart in the middle and said 'Happy Valentine's Day Hubby'. Inferno suppressed a chuckle when he saw the choices that meant nothing to Phobia other than beauty. She couldn't even read them yet!

"Oh, and I also got you this!" Phobia said as she pulled out a photo album, "It's a book with no pictures. You're supposed to put the pictures in yourself, and I thought a famous hero like you would have all sorts of pictures to put in it! Do you like it?"

"I love it, Phobia," Inferno replied honestly, "I think I've got a picture I can put in there right now."

Inferno then pulled a thin steel photo from his days on Cybertron out of his subspace. Phobia looked at it, and she saw three Cybertronians standing in front of a fire station. She recognized Red Alert and Inferno, but the third one was a mystery.

"Who's that?" Phobia asked as she pointed to the red and yellow femme in the photo.

"That's Firestar," Inferno informed her, "She used to work with me and Red Alert at the Iacon firehouse before the war. After the war we worked together to stop Megatron's tyranny."

"What's  _tyranny_?" Phobia repeated the unfamiliar word.

"That means he tells everyone what to do and makes them live by his rules even if it doesn't benefit anyone but himself," Inferno tried to explain, "Megatron doesn't believe in freedom. He only cares about his own power. That's what we Autobots fight against. Red Alert and I fight here on earth, and Firestar is still on Cybertron fighting with the other Autobot femmes against Shockwave."

Phobia made a cringing face, and Inferno asked her why.

"Sometimes Q-Boom calls me Lady Shockwave because I don't have a mouth and Shockwave doesn't have a faceplate. I hate it," Phobia replied with her face scrunched up in an adorable pout, "So, is Firestar your girlfriend?" Phobia suddenly perked up as she asked; showing just how quickly a sparkling's attention can be diverted.

"Naw, we just worked together," Inferno replied, "Honestly, after the war broke out there wasn't really any time for things like that. It was a shame too, because there have been a few femmes in my life I wish could've stayed."

"Did they all die?" Phobia asked pointedly.

"Most did, yeah," Inferno replied sullenly, "A couple just didn't work out. Aw well, enough of this depressing talk! What store do you wanna hit next?"

"I want to find a gift for Daddy!" Phobia said as she ran in the direction of more shops.

Inferno just smiled, shook his head, and slowly walked in the direction she went in; careful to not step on the humans that for some reason wouldn't get out of the way. The humans in this town just trusted him and the other Autobots that much.

* * *

Honey Venom sat in Skyfire's lab and watched him while he worked. He talked to her and explained everything he was doing. She felt honored to be learning from one of the scientific giants (both figuratively and literally) of the Golden Age.

"...And taking a few cultures from this sample, we find that light gives it a prism effect as well as liquefies its once solid structure," Skyfire concluded his demonstration of a yeast sample he found on an alien planet, "So, would you like to try now?"

"No, thank you," Honey Venom replied with a tired smile, "I have already seen the concept in action. You know, if you added that liquid to a thermite substance you might be able to get a flaming rainbow. I believe the other Sigmas would love that."

"Sigmas?" Skyfire asked obliviously.

"My sisters," Honey Venom explained unperturbed, "Phobia loves colorful things, and Terrabyte loves candles, so we could put the rainbow flame on a candle. Q-Boom loves fire, so everyone is happy."

"That is too dangerous to do aboard the Ark," Skyfire turned her down gently, "Maybe we can find a different experiment for you to try."

"Perhaps," Honey Venom replied noncommittally, "Skyfire, may I ask you a question? I don't mean to overstep my bounds, but Ratchet said you had a friend that became a Decepticon and shot you."

Skyfire cringed. He didn't expect this question to come up so soon.

"If I may ask...was that friend Commander Starscream?" Honey Venom ventured.

"How did you guess?" Skyfire asked, though he really didn't want to talk about this if he didn't have to.

"I have read three scientific journals you co-authored with Starscream," Honey Venom explained, "I have also heard about his attempt to murder you, as well as read about his military career from several books published on the subject. Did you know at the time of my stasis lock Starscream had over 7,000 confirmed kills and many more that could not be verified but were clearly done by him?"

Skyfire felt sick. He knew Starscream was a warrior, and he knew the Decepticons had committed many atrocities in this war, but to actually hear the number of deaths by Starscream's servos was disheartening. He had hoped that Starscream shooting him was just an irrational act done out of hurt and a sense of betrayal. Now he knew better. It was a reflex honed by thousands of decavorns of practice! Starscream didn't care if Skyfire died that day or not, and he wouldn't care no matter who he killed. The 7,000 that were killed were all millions of years prior to this conversation, so who knew how many had been added to that grisly list since then!

"So you were shot by Commander Starscream?" Honey Venom asked again.

"Yes, Honey Venom, I was shot by Starscream," Skyfire replied in a haggard tone of voice; already tired of being reminded of that day.

"And you lived?" Honey Venom asked despite the fact that she was clearly talking to him.

Skyfire smiled a little at her absurdity and said "Yes, I lived."

"Hm," Honey Venom thought about that for a minute before she said "You're pretty tough Skyfire. You actually survived a shot from Starscream's null ray. Strength and brains. You're a double threat."

Honey Venom smiled up at him in a playful yet endearing way. Skyfire didn't know what to make of the little gold femme. Half the time she seemed sincere, and the other half she seemed like a conniving glitch. She was hateful to Sunstreaker and several other Autobots, but would protect her friends with her life. It was an odd contrast.

That was when he noticed it! The sly smirk, the curiosity, the smooth words that were carefully tailored to control the conversation...Now he knew where he had seen these traits before!  _Starscream_! The little femme behaved in a way that was similar to Starscream! Why didn't he see it before?

"Honey Venom…" Skyfire was cautious as he spoke, but knew he had to have this conversation before things got out of hand, "How do you feel about the Autobots?"

"Hm...Could you be more specific?" Honey Venom asked, "Do you speak of the cause, or the Autobots themselves? Is there an individual you mean, or the entire group?"

"All of them. Maybe start with the cause," Skyfire replied.

"I feel it is flawed, but every military operation is flawed," Honey Venom answered, "Reading the strategy guides and historical records is enough to prove that. How do  _you_  feel about it though? I mean, you don't really seem like an Autobot. You seem more like a neutral that got hungry and came in for some energon."

Skyfire hadn't really thought of it like that. Did he seem wishy washy? He didn't mean to. The Autobots were kind to him, and took him in when the universe was confusing and frightening to him. He was truly grateful for that. Still, he admitted to hating the violence, and oftentimes would question why he was still a soldier if he didn't want to be.

"The Autobots are good mechs," Skyfire replied evenly.

"So your commitment is to the mechs, not the cause?" Honey Venom asked; hoping he would elaborate.

Skyfire sighed and hung his helm. What could he say? She was right. He didn't even understand the reasons why this war had to escalate so far. Still, there was one thing Honey Venom needed to know…

"I do care about these mechs, but I also care about Cybertron," Skyfire said with conviction, "The Decepticons destroyed Cybertron. Our culture is all but dead, and many cities have been lost. I have read the accounts as well, and the Decepticons are responsible for the destruction of those cities. Praxus, Iacon, Crystal City, Helex, and even your home of Altihex. All gone or in ruins because of the Decepticons. I cannot condone what they have done to us."

"Would a dictatorship be worse than a dead planet?" Honey Venom asked, "Because that was the choice the Prime had to make. I respect Optimus Prime. He is powerful and intelligent. Still, I fear he made the wrong choice. Megatron would've left those cities alone if everyone had just stopped resisting.  _Peace through tyranny_ , that was his motto, and that is exactly what would've happened if the Autobots had done nothing. Personally, I know I have no say in the matter. I have been a Decepticon for my entire life, but I am only a sparkling, and you are my guardian now, so I am what you are. If you are an Autobot, then so am I. I can live with that if it means energon and a place to recharge."

Honey Venom then wheeled around to the other side of the table to get a better look at the colorful yeast still bubbling in its glass. Skyfire was even more confused now than he was before! He asked about her feelings to see if she would be loyal to the Autobots, but after everything she said he still didn't know. She clearly wasn't a fan of the Autobots, but didn't seem to harbor any ill will toward them. She told Sunstreaker to his face that she hated him, but Skyfire still didn't know why.

In the end, all he could do was try to raise her well. She might die, and she might even betray him, but he had to try. Honey Venom's future was at stake, and she too seemed to realize this despite everything she said.


	11. Filterbot Follies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is one of my favorite chapters in the story because of the humor. Admittedly I'm more of a sucker for drama most of the time, but when comedy comes out the way I want it to that's also a good feeling. I hope everyone is enjoying the story so far, and I'll do my best to update on this site regularly. Thank you for reading, and if you would like to leave a comment below I would welcome it :)

**Chapter 11**

**Filterbot Follies**

Blaster got the job of babysitting Terrabyte while Sunstreaker and Sideswipe were on patrol duty that day. He showed her his extensive collection of earth's music videos and asked her which ones she wanted to watch. Terrabyte looked at them carefully, and said she wanted to start with a couple songs by a reggae artist named Lucky Dube. Blaster happily obliged.

Meanwhile, the cassettes and filters were trying to get the football game on the radio. Well, Eject was trying to get the ballgame while Rewind, Ramhorn, Shriek, Screwball, and Turret watched.

"How did Steeljaw get out of this?" Ramhorn groused, "If we have to suffer so should he!"

"He's on a scouting mission," Rewind replied.

"Of course! Typical! Meanwhile I get to sit here on my aft and watch the Vikings Vs. The Packers! I hate human sports!" Ramhorn exclaimed caustically.

"Shut up!" Eject yelled, "I can't hear!"

"Do you have a favored team, Eject?" Shriek asked curiously.

"Not really, but I got a lotta money riding on this game," Eject replied as he turned another radio dial and hoped for a signal, "I wish Blaster hadn't taken the TV. Then I could be watching the game on there instead of on this dinky thing!"

"You're gambling?  _Again_?" Rewind asked disapprovingly, "Remember what happened last time?"

"I know, I know, but this is a sure thing!" Eject said in denial, "The Vikings are totally gonna win!"

"Really?" Shriek asked, genuinely curious, "And what do you base this assurance on?"

"The Vikings mascot has a cool horn helmet!" Eject explained proudly, "The Packers wear  _cheese_  on their heads! Clearly they have the inferior team."

"You based your strategy on their uniforms?" Rewind asked skeptically.

"Turret believes Eject is a moron," Turret said in a clipped tone of voice.

"Hey, football!" Screwball shouted as Eject got the radio on the correct frequency, "My favorite thing!"

"You like football, too?" Eject asked hopefully.

"Ignore Screwball, his processor isn't calibrated quite right," Shriek explained, "He likes everything. Watch this: Hey Screwball, why do you bite everyone?"

"Biting? My favorite thing!" Screwball shouted childishly.

"See?" Shriek smirked impishly with her beak, "Listen Screwball, could you watch Terrabyte while we're gone? Turret and I are going to explore the air vents again."

"Terrabyte? That's my favorite thing!" Screwball gasped as if it were the first thing he had ever declared love for, "How did you know?"

"Lucky guess," Shriek deadpanned, "We won't be gone long."

"You're leaving? But the game's starting!" Eject objected.

"Those games last for hours," Shriek pointed out, "We'll be back in time for the ending score."

Shriek then pulled away the grate with her talons and waited for Turret to scuttle over to the vent with her.

"Perhaps Shriek and Turret should do this in filter mode," Turret suggested as he eyed the vent with distaste, "Those vents are quite dusty and filthy."

Shriek sighed sharply and said "Just shut your bullet hole and get in here!"

Turret followed her and they started walking down the makeshift hallway that was the vent system. The Filterbots weren't very creative about their hiding places, as they always seemed to pick the air vents, but at least they didn't get lost anymore. They walked for a few minutes before Turret dared to break the silence.

"Perhaps Shriek and Turret should have stayed to protect Terrabyte," Turret thought out loud.

"Protect  _her_? Are you kidding me?" Shriek asked disparagingly, "We're the biggest cowards on the entire ship! We're being protected by our mistress's sparkling! She saves us every time the Autobots try something against us! Oh, and not to mention we have the most useless alt modes on the ship! We're  _dust filters,_  and our boss is a  _vacuum cleaner_!"

"Shriek and Turret do not have the most ridiculous alt mode," Turret said matter-of-factly, "Turret has studied battle records from several Autobot encounters with the Decepticons here on earth, and Turret has determined the worst alt mode."

"Oh? What is it?" Shriek inquired.

"The worst alt mode belongs to Megatron," Turret replied.

"Oh? What does he turn into?" Shriek asked.

"Megatron, in robot mode, is incredibly powerful," Turret explained, "Megatron has a fusion cannon on his right arm that delivers powerful wide-range punishment. In his alt mode, Megatron turns into a smaller gun that fires with less power and cannot be moved or operated without outside help. Commander Starscream or Commander Soundwave must fire the gun, or else Megatron's alt mode is inanimate and useless."

"That is pretty bad," Shriek conceded.

"It gets worse," Turret said with a hint of glee in his otherwise inflectionless voice, "In robot mode, the trigger for the gun is on Megatron's aft."

Shriek squawked out a laugh as the full implications of that sank in. She couldn't help herself, she had to ask "So, Starscream has to squeeze his boss's aft if he wants to get him to discharge his weapon?"

"That is a crude joke, but not far from the truth," Turret replied without humor, "Also, Soundwave would have to do the same."

"Hm...Do you think they realize that?" Shriek wondered.

"Doubtful," Turret replied, "When one is out on the battlefield, one does not think about whether or not he is covering his boss's aft."

Shriek was nearly doubled over with laughter after Turret's deadpan delivery. She knew he thought that it was funny, even if he wouldn't admit it.

The two Filterbots walked on in good-natured silence for a few more minutes, taking the time every now and then to look down at the different rooms they would pass. In one room they saw the geology lab where Beachcomber was examining geodes and listening to sitar music.

"You know, for a warship there sure seem to be a lot of scientists," Shriek noted.

Turret didn't reply, and Shriek just shrugged her wings and kept walking. In the next room they saw Bumblebee and Groove playing checkers. That looked boring, so they walked to the next room. In that room they saw Jazz playing Megaman on the custom made Super Nintendo system the humans donated to the Autobots a few years ago for their rescue efforts during a radio blackout caused by Megatron.

"Turret is intrigued," Turret said while staring down at Jazz, "It is not often ones sees such a vicious killer in his natural element. Turret never would've guessed that the saboteur liked children's games."

"After seeing how Sideswipe spends his time, nothing surprises me anymore," Shriek told him, "I cannot believe Terrabyte insisted on being adopted by Sunstreaker!"

"Terrabyte's plan is necessary in Terrabyte's mind," Turret said simply, "Shriek and Turret must respect Terrabyte's wishes."

"We're supposed to be her guardians!" Shriek shouted in a frustrated tone of voice, "She's going to be killed! Those twins are psychopaths! She is not safe! I'm sorry...I know this isn't helping, but I just feel...so useless! We can't compete with those trained warriors! We're nothing compared to them! If Sunstreaker gets angry with Terrabyte he could beat her to death! What are we going to do?"

"Turret does not believe Sunstreaker will kill Terrabyte," Turret replied, "Terrabyte is Sunstreaker's property. There is no reason for Sunstreaker to harm Terrabyte. Terrabyte has done everything Sunstreaker has asked. Terrabyte is safe."

Shriek wanted to believe Turret. The problem was they knew nothing about Autobots or their politics. The Filterbots spoke spark language, and the only one that could speak to them directly was Terrabyte (or other cassettes). All the information they had about the world came from their late mistress and her sparkling, Terrabyte.

Shriek turned a corner, and Turret went to follow her, but Turret bumped into Shriek when she stopped without warning him!

"Why has Shriek stopped?" Turret asked; annoyed.

"Other," Shriek said without elaboration, but Turret knew what she meant; someone else was in the tunnel with them.

Shriek looked into the yellow optics of another cassette bird. It looked so much like her, but he was red and black instead of white. Shriek regarded the stranger with a silent curiosity for a few seconds. The other bird didn't seem to interested in talking to her, either. Shriek didn't even realized the other had been following her and Turret for quite some time. Finally, Shriek broke the silence.

"So...Do you have a name or should I just call you Beaky?" Shriek asked sardonically.

"You're not that far off," the other answered, "My name is Laserbeak. So tell me, are you an Autobot or a Decepticon?"

"Does it matter?" Shriek asked in lieu of a reply, "Neither one of us is supposed to be in here, so I won't tell if you don't."

Laserbeak seemed to consider this, and then after a moment he said "Deal."

Shriek and Turret scooted over to one side so that Laserbeak could walk past them. After a few more minutes Shriek and Turret got bored and turned around to go back. When they made it back to the hole where they came from they could see Rewind and Eject fighting, Ramhorn recharging, Blaster and Terrabyte dancing to some song from Japan, and Screwball chasing his own aft around in circles.

"Having fun?" Shriek asked Screwball sarcastically.

"Fun! My favorite thing!" Screwball shouted happily as he kept spinning around and around.

"You know, there's an animal here on earth that looks like you," Shriek told the silver Filterbot.

Screwball stopped chasing his aft and looked at Shriek curiously.

"It's called a pug," Shriek told him with a knowing smirk.

"Pug? That's my  _favorite_  animal!" Screwball gushed.

"Do you even know what a pug is?" Shriek asked.

"Nope," Screwball replied cheerfully.

"And yet it's your favorite?" Shriek asked again.

"Yep!" Screwball said with all the surety of someone saying water was wet, "Hey Shriek, you wanna dance with us? You're my favorite sister!"

"I'm you're only sister," Shriek reminded him.

"I know! You're still my favorite!" Screwball said again as he took a bite out of her wing.

Shriek squawked in pain as Screwball's sharp Sharkticon-like teeth dug into her sensitive circuits!

"B'tng! M' Fvrt thng!" Screwball exclaimed; his voice muffled by a mouth full of wing.

Terrabyte turned around to see what her Filterbots were doing. She didn't smile, but on the inside she was content. Only she understood just how silly her guardians could be.

* * *

Aboard the Nemesis, Megatron and his officers awaited the return of Laserbeak. Rumble and Frenzy worked the monitors to ensure that everything operated at peak efficiency, and Soundwave poured over records of their previous battles to find out if there were any weak links among their troops. Starscream, as usual, was loitering and pacing around the room looking for a reason to complain.

Everyone felt the slight jolt in the floor that told them the ship was rising above the ocean canopy to admit Laserbeak back aboard. Then the ship lowered itself back down, and a few minutes later Laserbeak was in the command center ready to give his report on Autobot activity.

Soundwave viewed the files first. If there was nothing of interest then Megatron wouldn't want to be bothered by it, so Soundwave screened all information to ensure it was worth his master's time. Soundwave looked over the footage, noticed several things of interest, and marked them so he could show Megatron only the things that would interest him. It would've taken a human days to edit all of this, but Soundwave did it in a matter of seconds.

"Laserbeak reports: Autobots have sparklings in their care, Megatron," Soundwave reported in his computerized monotone voice.

"Sparklings?" Megatron repeated incredulously, "There have been no sparklings on Cybertron for thousands of vorns!"

"Maybe they were just minibots?" Rumble suggested, "I still remember sneaking out of an Autobot base back on Cybertron by pretending to be a sparkling. It was so humiliating!"

"What are you complaining about? At least it worked!" Frenzy pointed out.

"Shut up, you idiots!" Starscream yelled at the arguing Cassetticons, "How does Laserbeak know they were sparklings?"

"Never mind how he knows!" Megatron shouted irritably, "Soundwave, play the tape!"

Soundwave showed the footage on the big computer screen in the command center. One clip showed Terrabyte dancing with Blaster (if you could call barely moving in either direction dancing) and playing with her Filterbots. Another tape showed Phobia organizing files with Red Alert. The third clip showed Q-Boom eating energon goodies with Swoop. The final clip was of Honey Venom being strapped down to a medical berth after trying to sneak off again.

"Hey, that's a seekerling!" Skywarp cried out in horror after seeing the footage of Q-Boom and the Dinobot.

"By the Unmaker himself! They're  _Decepticon_  sparklings!" Starscream felt like he wanted to climb through the screen and throttle those no-good Autobots for stealing what rightfully belonged to the Decepticons.

"Well to be fair, only three are confirmed Decepticon," Thundercracker pointed out, "That one with Blaster has yellow optics. Both factions and even neutrals have yellow optics. She could be from anywhere."

"This changes nothing, Thundercracker!" Starscream snapped at his wingman, "Those filthy retro rats are raising Decepticons to be Autobots! They even have that one chained down in the medbay like an animal! Not to mention exposing a delicate seekerling to those brainless brutes the Dinobots! Megatron, we have to rescue them!"

"Since when do you care about those weaker than yourself, Starscream?" Megatron goaded his SIC.

"This is about principle!" Starscream insisted, "They're  _sparklings_! If the Autobots have Decepticon sparklings, then they might also have Decepticon femmes held prisoner! We're talking about the future of the Decepticon cause! Are we really just going to do nothing while they-?"

"Enough!" Megatron roared, "I never said we would do nothing. We will just have to play our hand carefully. We cannot storm Autobot headquarters without incurring severe casualties. No, we will have to figure out a way to lure the sparklings away from the Autobots. After all, I'm sure they would much rather be with their own kind than with Autobot trash. It's just a matter of time…"

Megatron laughed evilly at his own plan, while Starscream just scowled at his leader's lack of a plan. Soundwave wasn't paying attention. He was too busy trying to delete the footage where Shriek mentions Megatron's trigger. He would also need to delete some mental images later.


	12. Precious Life

**Chapter 12**

**Precious Life**

The Ark was relatively quiet on this sunny day. The four parents decided to take their sparklings outside for some fresh air and some sorely needed playtime.

Red Alert and Skyfire seemed to be the most cautious parents; Skyfire because of how fragile his sparkling was, and Red Alert because...well, he's Red Alert. Honey Venom wasn't allowed to go more than 200 yards from the Ark, and Phobia wished she was that lucky!

Terrabyte stayed near the other two sparklings to keep them company, and her Filterbots stayed near her to sit in the shade of the Ark. Q-Boom left them all in the dust as she flew high up in the sky! Wheeljack, trying to test out a long-range sensor recorder, was taping Q-Boom as she broke another personal height record. He beamed up at her like the proud papa he was!

Sunstreaker just stood there, polished his arms, and tried not to think about the dirt the sparklings were playing in. He would have to take Terrabyte straight to the wash racks after she was done playing with these little miscreants.

Phobia looked back at Red Alert and waved enthusiastically at him, and he waved back with a rare smile on his face. Honey Venom scribbled in the dirt with her nails, and Terrabyte watched. Shriek soon flew away to join Q-Boom, and Screwball went over to Sunstreaker and sat at his feet.

Sunstreaker looked down at the little silver guard dog and quirked an optic ridge. The little monster had never approached him before (unless it was trying to bite him), and it had certainly never sat at Sunstreaker's feet before! This was strange. Could it be that this Filterbot was finally starting to trust him?

The calm atmosphere was broken when Q-Boom comm'ed Wheeljack.

/Hey, Pop!/ Q-Boom said over the comm frequency, /I'm not alone up here! Advise!/

/What do you mean, sweet spark?/ Wheeljack asked, /Is it those darn buzzards again?/

/No! It's adults!/ Q-Boom said tensely, /They're comin' up pretty fast! Should I land?/

/Let me see.../ Wheeljack angled his sensor camera to get a better look, and saw a group of Decepticons led by Starscream heading straight toward their location! /Q-Boom! Evasive action! Get out of there now!/

Q-Boom could see the adults were much faster than her! If she tried to land she would never make it in time! Thinking quickly (if irrationally) she activated her timer and blew herself to smithereens! Her pieces wouldn't reassemble until she hit the ground, so it would take a minute; plenty of time for them to not notice her.

Starscream, his trine, Astrotrain, and Blitzwing all landed right in front of the Autobot fathers and drew their weapons! Astrotrain discreetly let Rumble and Frenzy out of his cargo hold and they scurried away toward the sparklings.

"Give us the prisoners, Autobot scum!" Starscream demanded as he aimed his null ray for Red Alert's helm.

"What are you talking about?" Skyfire asked as he held up his hands in a placating gesture, "We have no prisoners aboard this vessel."

"Yes you do, traitor!" Starscream shouted as he changed his aim to Skyfire's helm, "You have captured Decepticon sparklings! Give them back!"

"Those are our sparklings!" Wheeljack objected, "And you can't have them!"

"Then taste the power of Blitzwing!" Blitzwing shouted as he drew his sword and swung at Wheeljack; who ducked just in time!

Suddenly the Decepticons attacked in full force! It was 5 of them against only 4 of the Autobots, but the Decepticons knew better than to feel superior in their numbers. They were at the Ark, and soon reinforcements would arrive for the Autobots. Of course, by then it would be too late if all went according to Starscream's plan.

Meanwhile, Rumble and Frenzy approached the sparklings. There were only three, but that just meant they would be easier to carry. This was going to be tough. Two of the sparklings were the same height as Rumble and Frenzy, and the gold one was actually a little taller!

"Hey there, little sparklings," Frenzy cooed in what he hoped was a reassuring voice, "You look like you're having fun over there. Say, would you like to go on an adventure with us? We can go someplace really fun!"

The gold sparkling looked up at him, sighed, and said "Does it look like we were sparked last orn? You're Decepticons, and we are Autobots. We are enemies, you bolt brains."

"Bolt brains!?" Rumble snapped furiously, "Alright scraplet, listen up! Either you come with us or we'll weld your mouths shut!"

Phobia started crying, not because of the threat but because she thought they were ignoring her. She didn't have a mouth, and it was something she was very sensitive about.

The crying was enough to get Sunstreaker's attention. Even though Phobia wasn't his sparkling, he could see Terrabyte close to the terror twins of the Decepticons! No one stole from Sunstreaker and lived to brag about it! They were  _not_  getting his daughter!

"Hey, come on! Don't cry!" Frenzy shouted frantically as Phobia's ear piercing wail drew attention to their nefarious enterprise, "Come on, scraplet! We'll give you an energon goodie. You like energon goodies, don't ya?"

Phobia hiccoughed a couple times, looked at Frenzy miserably, and then said "I can't eat energon goodies! I'm a leech!"

Frenzy gulped, and took a few steps away from the sparklings. Rumble didn't get why Frenzy was so scared, but saw the way his brother's red visor grew wider and the way he shivered as he stared at Phobia.

"What's wrong, Frenzy?" Rumble asked; confused.

"She's an energon leech," Frenzy all but whispered, "She's a parasite that will suck us dry until there's nothing left but dead grey husks!"

"That's not true!" Phobia protested, "I won't be able to kill you until I'm an adult! Adult leeches are the ones that can drain a mech to death, not sparklings!"

"This has gone on long enough," Honey Venom said with a bored expression on her face, "Terrabyte, recall Screwball for an attack."

"YeS, HoNEy VeNom," Terrabyte replied dutifully, "SCreWBall, reTuRN!"

The Filterbot couldn't get back to Terrabyte, however. Astrotrain had the silver pug in his massive hand and was trying to squeeze the life out of it! Terrabyte tried to scream, failed, and ran out into the battlefield to get her companion! Despite the pain in her spark, Honey Venom followed, and Phobia followed after her!

Sunstreaker was busy fighting off Skywarp. Sunstreaker was so enraged that he could no longer hear anything around him! He was in full battle berserker mode, and when he got like this all he saw was the battlefield and all he felt was bloodlust! It was a scary sight to an outsider, and a type of drunkenness that meant Sunstreaker would likely not remember half of what he even did!

He ripped Skywarp's arm off, and then gnashed his denta into the seeker's left wing! Skywarp was screaming curses at the yellow lambo twin, but Sunstreaker didn't hear him! All he knew was the smell of his enemy's energon and the danger his sparkling was in!

Terrabyte made it to Astrotrain in time to see the hulking triple changer drop the silver Filterbot on the ground. Terrabyte warbled unintelligibly, a pitiful sound, and slowly picked up the prone form of her symbiote. He was alive, but barely. Screwball was losing energon fast, and he didn't have long to live.

"Terrabyte, give him to me," Honey Venom said in a weak voice as she tried to avoid passing out.

"YeS, HoNEy VeNom," Terrabyte handed over the metallic dog without question.

Honey Venom raked her claws gently along the gushing energon lines. If she could paralyze those areas and force the energon lines to close, then maybe Screwball would have more time. Maybe enough time to heal or be repaired.

The girls were so intent on fixing the Filterbot that they completely forgot about Astrotrain standing right over them!

"So…" Astrotrain said in his creepy echoing voice, "This little menace belongs to you, eh? Well I'm sorry. I thought it was an Autobot. I'm sure we can fix him aboard the Nemesis. Just climb aboard and we'll be off."

Terrabyte looked up quickly at the Decepticon. He was huge! All four of the sparklings could probably fit in his fist! Terrabyte took a single step back to get a better look at him, but didn't say anything. It was actually Phobia that broke the silent standoff.

"We don't wanna go with you!" Phobia said with absolute certainty, "I wanna stay with my daddy! Honey Venom wants to stay with her, um...What  _is_  Skyfire to you?"

"My mentor," Honey Venom replied smoothly.

"Yeah! Honey Venom wants to stay with her mental!" Phobia barked at Astrotrain, and he chuckled at how she looked when she tried to be tough, "We don't wanna go with you anywhere, so just leave!"

"What about the third sparkling?" Astrotrain asked pointedly.

"You tried to kill her cassette!" Phobia pointed out angrily, "Why would anyone trust a murderer with their best friends? Oh, sorry...I forgot…"

"It'S ALRighT," Terrabyte replied as she put a hand on Phobia's shoulder.

Then a wonderful yet ear piercing sound was heard on the battlefield...

"Decepticons! Retreat!" Starscream shouted as he fired up his thrusters and left.

The other Decepticons soon followed, including a begrudged Astrotrain. Terrabyte looked around to see the damage, and almost purged when she saw one mech in particular…

Sunstreaker was pulling the dismembered and mangled body of Skywarp behind him. The seeker was still alive, but the carrier sparkling didn't see how. She looked at the other Autobots...They were all fine for the most part. Wheeljack might need some new paint and a replacement ankle joint, but otherwise they were fine. Q-Boom was even with Wheeljack helping him limp back to the Ark.

Still, Sunstreaker was covered in the spilled energon of his conquered enemy, and he didn't even seem to notice. Terrabyte had never seen him not complain about a mess on his paint job before. This new scene, with him filthy and carrying a seeker mutilated and worn into the Ark with him, it was disturbing.

Skyfire went up to the sparklings and looked them over carefully before asking "Are you alright? Did they hurt you?"

"Screwball is hurt," Honey Venom handed him the Filterbot, "Terrabyte will be sparkbroken if you don't get him fixed. Please help him…"

She wasn't crying or anything, but this was the first hint of honest emotion Skyfire had ever seen from his own sparkling, and he was touched that it was for the sake of one of her friends. He picked her up along with Screwball and went back into the Ark. Red Alert was left to get Phobia and Terrabyte since Sunstreaker had to carry their newest prisoner.

It was ironic, really. The Decepticons accused them of taking prisoners where there were none, and because of that now they actually had a prisoner.

* * *

Ratchet had to work tirelessly to repair the Decepticon seeker Skywarp. He didn't know why he bothered. Skywarp would've left them for dead any day of the week. Still, he needed to save the miserable 'Con's life. If for no other reason than Skywarp might have useful information about the Decepticons and their latest plan for conquest. Why they would try to steal sparklings though was anyone's guess.

Honey Venom had to be in the medbay during part of the operation. She was still too weak to be away from the medbay for long. After Ratchet felt like he was far enough along with the surgery, he had Skywarp moved to an isolation room so he couldn't harm any of the sparklings.

Skywarp awoke to dull orange walls and dim lighting. There was no furniture in the room except for his own medical berth and a single monitor that transmitted his vital signs to the main medbay for Ratchet. He was alone, and it was quiet. He felt like he would go insane from how quiet it was!

"Hello? Hey! Can a mech get some room service here?" Skywarp shouted caustically; mostly so he could hear something, "Hey! How about getting this IV out of me and giving me some real energon?  _Helloooo_? I know you can hear me, you Autobot slaggers! When I get my servos on you-!"

Before he could finish his threat, however, the door gently swooshed open and a tiny figure came inside. Skywarp figured it was probably one of the humans or maybe a minibot. Soon he would have to face Ratchet Jazz or Prowl, and then the torture would begin. Needless to say, Skywarp didn't feel very charitable in that moment.

"Oh, so you finally heard me, huh fragger?" Skywarp spat in contempt, "Yeah, well, when my trine comes back with reinforcements you're gonna get slagged from here all the way back to Cybertron!"

The tiny figure backed up a few steps, but then gingerly started approaching Skywarp again. When the light shone on his visitor, Skywarp could see it was one of the sparklings! It stared at him with wide but emotionless eyes, and circled his berth as if calculating its next move. Skywarp didn't expect anything so small and adorable to look so intelligent.

"So...You're little, huh?" Skywarp said awkwardly; not sure how to recover from cussing out a sparkling, "Well then...Listen sweet spark, my neck really hurts with this collar on, so could you be a dear and get the key and remove it for me? You're a big femme, right? You can do that for ol' Uncle Skywarp, can't ya?"

The collar he spoke of was put in place to keep him from teleporting, and removing it would allow him to escape. He hoped he could trick the sparkling into helping him, and then he could teleport himself and the sparkling back to the Nemesis.

The sparkling, however, was making no move to get the key or even to answer him. She was still circling the berth and moving her gaze from one restraint to the next. There were four restraints to contain his four limbs, and another one over his waist. There was the neck collar that prevented teleportation and transformation, and a final cuff on his left arm to lock his subspace pocket. The Autobots had him locked up tighter than a drum!

The sparkling circled a couple more times, cocked her head to one side for a minute as she thought about what she was looking at, and then pulled a small item out of her subspace. Skywarp craned his head to get a better look at what she was doing near his right thruster, and saw that she was holding a welding torch from Ratchet's office! The sparkling never said a word as she gently but diligently melted down the cuff holding down Skywarp's right pede!

"Hey, good job kid!" Skywarp said excitedly as he watched her go from one thruster to the other, "Just get my arms and we're home free! I'll be able to remove the other stuff myself."

The sparkling didn't listen to him though. She went to his waist next, and then to his left arm. When that was free, she set the torch down so Skywarp could free his own right arm. He smiled with unrestrained glee as he freed his final limb and then melted down the troublesome collar and subspace lock!

Skywarp pumped his fist in triumph! He then turned to his silent rescuer to teleport her back with him to the Decepticon base, but when he looked she was already gone. She was out the door and he knew if he went after her he would be spotted. Better to teleport now and report to Starscream. Sadly, he would have to make up an excuse for Megatron; who had no idea of what Starscream and the others had planned to save the sparklings. Skywarp hated going against Megatron, but those sparklings were Decepticons, and they deserved to be raised as conquerors instead of soft sparked Autobots!

He sighed in defeat and told himself this was only temporary as he disappeared from the Ark in a flicker of purple light.

* * *

There was no way to deny it. The security footage might have been difficult to see in that dark isolation room, but it was obvious that one of the sparklings freed Skywarp! The Autobots were shocked as they realized they were betrayed by one of their own, and a being that seemed so innocent at that!

The only sparkling that had an alibi was Q-Boom, who had been with Bumblebee in the rec room at that time. Honey Venom was supposedly in the medbay, but Ratchet had stepped out for a half hour to go to the supply room and find more medical grade energon for Skywarp.

"It had to be Honey Venom!" Sunstreaker said vehemently, "That femme has been nothing but trouble ever since she got here!"

"Sunstreaker please, we don't know that," Skyfire tried to dissuade his colleague's anger.

"No! No more excuses!" Sunstreaker shouted at Skyfire, "She has been waiting for an excuse to serve her Decepticon masters all this time! Can't you see it in her optics? She hates us and she's been planning to betray us from day one! She manipulates us and even her own friends for her own purposes! She's a Decepticon through and through!"

"I agree with Sunstreaker!" Red Alert said wholeheartedly, "I wouldn't be surprised if she's just been pretending to be weak so she can steal our secrets and give them to Megatron!"

"Well, I don't know about sabotage, but I can testify to her weakened physical state," Ratchet said as he scowled at Red Alert.

Skyfire hung his head. He was afraid an angry mob would go after his sparkling and it scared him, but the truth was he knew her better than any other Autobot and even  _he_  believed deep down that she was capable of switching sides. She had a smug type of superiority that Decepticons seemed to admire, and she outright admitted to him that she was only an Autobot so she could have a place to live. Still, he didn't want them to harm his daughter!

Skyfire was broken from this reverie when he saw Sunstreaker storm out of the room followed by several other Autobots that were either encouraging him or trying to stop him. Skyfire rushed to join them, hoping Sunstreaker wouldn't do anything to harm a sparkling.

Honey Venom, meanwhile, sat on her berth and read a book from the extensive collection she kept in her subspace. Ratchet was gone and had been for some time. She couldn't help but wonder what had the grouchy medic so concerned. She waved the thought away and turned back to her book; an autobiography written by none other than Megatron himself.

The door swooshed open, and Sunstreaker stormed in like the fury of the Unmaker! He was followed by Prowl, Red Alert, Ratchet, Sideswipe, Jazz, and Skyfire. Honey Venom gave the room a cursory glance, shrugged, and then returned to her book.

"Honey Venom!" Sunstreaker bellowed accusingly, "I know it was you!"

" _Excuse_  me?" Honey Venom asked as if she were addressing a mouthy servant.

"I know you're the one who freed Skywarp! Traitor!" Sunstreaker pointed a digit at her to illustrate his point, "Just admit it!"

"You can neither prove or disprove that statement,  _Sunstroke_ ," Honey Venom said with a menacing sneer, "You have no case!"

"You better watch yourself," Sunstreaker growled, "It is taking every ounce of restraint I have to not rip you apart. I would never harm a sparkling, but you need to remember that you won't be a sparkling forever."

"That's right, Sunshine, I won't," Honey Venom's voice took on a biting tone as she spoke her next words, "I'll either be a femme, or I'll be dead from spark failure. Not that it matters either way. You want me dead, and if I survive it's just more fun for you. You  _enjoy_  killing femmes, don't you Sunstreaker?"

Sunstreaker couldn't take anymore of that smug sneering Decepticon wannabe! He lunged at her, but Sideswipe pulled him back and held him down before he could even touch Honey Venom!

"Let me go, Sides! She has this coming!" Sunstreaker grunted and growled as he tried to free himself from his twin brother.

"This isn't right, Sunny!" Sideswipe shouted at his writhing brother, "We're better than the 'Cons! If she is guilty then she can't hide forever! Everything will work out, you'll see. Come on, Sunny!"

"Yes, my investigation is ongoing," Prowl said stoically as he took a twin in each hand and pried them apart, "Until such time as the truth comes out, all sparklings are to be confined to the Ark. I will determine who freed Skywarp. Until then, I suggest we take our leave."

The other Autobots left except for Ratchet, but before he let the door close behind him Sunstreaker turned back to Honey Venom and said "I know you're a traitor."

"Technically, I can't be a traitor," Honey Venom replied with a superior smile on her face, "I'm not old enough to choose a side yet and receive my sigil."

"Yeah? What  _is_  your sigil, Honey Venom?" Sunstreaker asked, and then left before she could answer.

Ratchet sighed and gave Honey Venom a forlorn look. She put away the data pad of Megatron's autobiography and was grateful they didn't try to use it against her. She gave Ratchet a smile, this time more of a simper, and then lied down to recharge. She didn't recharge, however, but instead opened a comm transmission to Terrabyte.

/Terrabyte. This is Honey Venom,/ the gold sparkling waited for the static to clear, and then said /Sunstreaker just came in and told me Skywarp was released earlier today. Know anything about that, Terrabyte?/

For a long time there was no answer, and Honey Venom wondered if she would go into stasis lock before getting an answer, but then…

/I'm SoRrY!/ Terrabyte cried out over the transmission, /SunSTrEAker...AlMoSt kiLled him. ThE AUtoBotS...WeRe GoIng to Kill hIM./

/I see,/ was all Honey Venom said at first, but then /I'll report to Optimus Prime that it was me who released Skywarp./

/NOOoo!/ Terrabyte wailed desperately, /YOu aRe iNnoCent!/

/It doesn't matter!/ Honey Venom snapped, /I'm  _dying_ , Terrabyte! It doesn't matter if they hate me! You still have a chance to survive until your upgrade, but you have to live by their rules! You are an Autobot now, and you live by the will of the Prime and Sunstreaker alone! You must never, and I mean  _never_ , show mercy to a Decepticon ever again! You are an Autobot now! You will never show sympathy to Decepticons, and you will never so much as talk to them without permission! Do you understand me?/

There was another long silence, but then…

/YeS, HoNeY, VeNom./

/Good. I'll confess to Prime as soon as I'm strong enough to stay awake,/ Honey Venom declared, /Honey Venom out./

* * *

Terrabyte hung up the comm inside her head and looked around her room. There were her toys, and the berth Sunstreaker had brought to her that first night. There were the bunks where the twins slept, and the shelves filled with their stuff. She looked around her room, and thought about the energon on Sunstreaker's body as he carried Skywarp into the Ark like a hunting trophy.

She sat down on her berth, all alone with no one but the Filterbots inside her, and she sobbed for the first time since she found herself in the foundling home. She felt the coolant flow freely from her eyes, but she didn't even care! She wailed, and hoped no one else could hear her.


	13. No Hard Feelings

**Chapter 13**

**No Hard Feelings**

Honey Venom had gone straight to Optimus Prime as soon as she was able. Well, she mostly did it right away so she would still have the nerve to face him. The little gold femme thought herself processor-damaged for volunteering to be punished by the leader of the Autobots himself! Still, Terrabyte would've done the same for her. Pit, back in the foundling home she  _had_  done the same for Honey Venom when it came to the caretakers!

The poisonous sparkling sat across from the Prime as he moved a few data pads to the side on his desk. The chair she was sitting in was much too large for her tiny frame, and made her feel even more insignificant as the red and blue Autobot focused all of his attention on her.

"You wanted to tell me something, Honey Venom?" Optimus asked in a voice that betrayed no suspicions or ill will.

"Yes, sir," Honey Venom began in a regal voice that hid the nervousness she felt in his presence, "I wish to confess a moment of weakness. I am the one who released Lt. Commander Skywarp from the isolation room earlier today."

Optimus hummed under his breath and said "I see."

Honey Venom took this as her invitation to continue.

"I know now that I made a mistake, and I am only grateful that I live to tell you of my moment of error," Honey Venom tried to sound proper and mature, but even she knew she was calling herself an idiot, "I humbly implore you to forgive my actions. I will do whatever it takes to win back your good graces. I still wish to be considered an Autobot, Prime sir."

Honey Venom hated herself in that moment. She was begging! It was the foundling home all over again! When she was younger she would plead with the caretakers every time she displeased them. As she grew older she grew a thicker defense and a sense of pride that wouldn't allow her to stoop so low anymore. She wasn't afraid of dying, not in broad terms, but she  _was_  afraid of Optimus Prime; the Decepticons' own harbinger of death. He was the only mech that could take on the mighty Megatron, and that terrified Honey Venom!

"Just answer me one question Honey Venom," Optimus replied soberly, "Why did you do it? Why would you go against your elders and aid the Decepticons?"

Honey Venom froze! How could she describe the motivations for a crime she didn't even commit? What answer would appease the Prime? Should she say it was all part of a plan to win the Decepticons' trust and infiltrate them? Should she say she wanted blackmail material on the high-ranking seeker? No! These excuses would never work! They would only make her look like a threat to Prime's power! What could she  _say_? The only thing she could think of was to describe Terrabyte's motivation, as that would at least be believable; even if she didn't quite understand it herself.

"Sunstreaker...Almost killed him," Honey Venom said slowly; quoting Terrabyte verbatim, "The Autobots were going to kill him."

Honey Venom hoped that would be enough for the Prime. She remembered the words but didn't understand their significance in Terrabyte's reasoning ability. Mercy and compassion weren't qualities Honey Venom understood when it came to those she didn't know, so she didn't understand how Terrabyte could feel that way.

Surprisingly to Honey Venom, Optimus next said "I understand."

"You...You  _do_?" Honey Venom asked incredulously.

"I know how difficult seeing another being in pain must be to someone as young as you are," Optimus nodded warmly, "Rest assured that we weren't going to kill Skywarp. Most likely we would have exchanged him back to Megatron for something useful such as use of the space bridge or parts we are low on. I just want you to know that I am proud of your sense of compassion and justice. You'll fit in just fine, Honey Venom. Normally I would confine you to your quarters, but since you rarely leave the medbay anyway that hardly seems to be an option. Instead I will have you write an essay on the importance of protocol. I will expect it on my desk this time tomorrow. You are dismissed."

"T-thank you, sir," Honey Venom replied shakily; not really sure what just happened.

Honey Venom left the office with her processor racing over her encounter. Optimus Prime was proud of an act of treason? He wasn't just powerful; he was insane! How could she plan her moves around a being for whom logic seemed to mean nothing? Then there was Terrabyte. Honey Venom was still grateful Terrabyte had not admitted her actions. After seeing the way Sunstreaker had went off on her in the medbay like that...it was one thing for Honey Venom to fight Sunstreaker, she had her poison nails to rely on, but Terrabyte was truly powerless against such a ferocious beast!

Honey Venom returned to the medbay and immediately began writing her essay. It would need to be perfect if she were to impress, or at least please, the Prime.

* * *

Something had to be done about that sparkling! Q-Boom was driving the Autobots nuts, and Wheeljack seemed oblivious to the trouble she was causing!

When Smokescreen had told her about his sigma ability during one of their therapy sessions she had joked that his power was just visible farts. Not only that, but she gave the other Autobots insulting nicknames based on their alt modes. She called Ratchet the blood bank, Mirage the indignity 500, Prowl the donut-mobile, Optimus Prime Captain Convoy, and Ironhide the free candy van. The only other adult besides Wheeljack she seemed to respect was Jazz. She thought he was cool.

If that wasn't bad enough, she and the Dinobots would often randomly start rampaging through the Ark when they played their silly games! One time Grimlock got his head stuck in the energon dispenser when Q-Boom told him it would turn into high grade if he managed to get his whole face in there! Grimlock got her back though when he bit her left thruster! Oh, the mess that was made that day!

The other Autobots were sick of her, but Wheeljack just smiled like butter wouldn't melt. He was used to the other Autobots criticizing things that were his. He got the same reaction when he built the Dinobots, and he often got that reaction when an invention failed. It seemed the only language they understood was results.

On this particular day Wheeljack was at a whiteboard working out the details of his sparkling's eventual upgrade. It would be another couple of vorns before she would actually be upgraded, but Wheeljack believed in preparedness. Q-Boom was at her usual spot on the counter in his lab kicking her feet up and down as she watched him work and answered his questions about what she wanted. She was grateful that he asked her opinion. Some adults didn't even care and would just build whatever they wanted whether the sparklings liked it or not.

"Hey, Pop!" Q-Boom called out to him as she suddenly had a notion, "Can I have sharper teeth on my new adult body?"

"Sharp teeth? On a seeker?" Wheeljack asked; intrigued, "Why would you want that?"

"Because Screwball has them, and Grimlock has them, and even Sludge has them!" Q-Boom replied enviously, "I don't wanna be weaker than  _Sludge_! Then I'll be the wussiest member of the team!"

"Um, Q-Boom, I'm surprised I have to tell you this," Wheeljack replied hesitantly, "But I'm not reformatting you into a Dinobot for your upgrade."

"I know that!" Q-Boom barked defensively, "But I wanna be tough like my Dino-brothers!"

"But sweet spark, you're a seeker," Wheeljack reminded her, "Seekers aren't made for brute strength. Maybe you should focus your upgrades on speed and agility. That will be much more useful to you when you're completed. Now, about height…"

"I wanna be  _really_  tall!" Q-Boom shouted joyfully, "As tall as you, at least!"

Wheeljack hesitated once more, but finally said "Well...I can do that if you really want, but you gotta realize that you're a seeker femme. If you're as tall as me then you'll be mech-sized. It might be harder for you to find a bondmate when you're older."

"Might as well be mech-sized," Q-Boom muttered as a look of frustration crossed her face and she crossed her arms over her cockpit, "I've already got the name and the attitude."

"Name?" Wheeljack focused on that word.

"Yeah, my full name: Quantum Boom," Q-Boom explained, "It's a mech's name, but I'm a femme. I hate my name. The other sparklings at the foundling home used to tease me about it all the time. They used to say I should convert myself into a mech when I get upgraded because of my name and because I'm gross sometimes. I mean come on! So I can be crass, and so what if I downloaded a belching noise subroutine to annoy people? I can be gross and messy and still be a femme!"

"If it's such a problem, then why did your creators give you that name in the first place?" Wheeljack asked.

" _Creator_ ," Q-Boom corrected him, "I only had one. My spark-father went to the vector sigma to make me. He really wanted a mech and came up with all sorts of mech names for his newspark, but the vector sigma gave him a femme. He loved me anyway, but when he saw what my sigma ability was he couldn't resist giving me the name Quantum Boom. His name was Quasar, so we both had the same first initial. He'd always play with me when he wasn't working or recharging. I especially loved it when he taught me how to fly straight when I was only a few solar cycles old."

"Yeah?" Wheeljack loved seeing the fondness in Q-Boom's optics; even if it was for a father he would have to try to live up to, "Did you get along with his trine, too?"

"They were both killed before I was born," Q-Boom replied sullenly, "I think that's why he wanted a sparkling; because he missed his friends. I used to go with Father to the base where he was stationed, and I could see it...The other mechs treated him different because he didn't have a trine no more. Some even thought I shouldn't have been sparked because Father was due to go crazy any time. They were stupid."

Wheeljack chuckled at how blunt Q-Boom was when discussing the prejudice of her late father's colleagues. The laughter died, however, with what she said next.

"I wasn't there when he was killed, but I saw the tapes," Q-Boom said in a surprisingly serious tone for the perpetually nonchalant sparkling, "The scouts would tape the battle so they could analyze ways to improve their strategies and stuff. He was shot down by an Autobot anti-aircraft turret. He couldn't see because of all the smoke, and he got shot down and crashed. He died before he even hit the ground."

 _Autobot anti-aircraft turret_ …

Those words made Wheeljack's energon run cold. He was so used to the bubbly little sparkling running amok and filling his lab with laughter that he often forgot that she was a Decepticon-sparked creation. For once when Wheeljack looked down at her, he tried to imagine what her spark-father would've seen, and what he thought as he constructed her temporary sparkling body. Some things were pre-programmed by the vector sigma and could not be changed, but the blades on her head were clearly her father's own invention. The dual thrusters, the angular wings, the missile launchers, and especially her head blades all pointed to her being a war machine in the making.

_Autobot anti-aircraft turret...He was shot down...by an Autobot…_

"Oh, sweet spark!" Wheeljack exclaimed with such sympathy and even a twinge of guilt, "It hadn't occurred to me before...You must have a lot of anger stored up because of what the Autobots did to you…I'm  _so_  sorry, Q-Boom…"

"Why? You didn't do it," Q-Boom shrugged as she casually looked back up at him; the sadness from before all but forgotten, "Besides, there's no reason for me to be mad at the Autobots. It's a war. They were soldiers. My father was a soldier. When they looked up at him they didn't say ' _let's kill this new father and orphan his sparkling_ '. They just saw an enemy. That's all he saw when he looked down at them, too. Some of those Autobots that died probably had sparklings, too. It happens. That's what a war is. You just point and shoot and don't ask any questions that might make you think. No hard feelings."

Q-Boom's voice had no traces of anger or bitterness as she spoke. She just stated her words as if they were undeniable facts. Wheeljack felt both awed and disturbed by what she said to him. Awed because his little femme didn't even seem to be  _capable_  of hatred, and disturbed because of how normal war and death were to her. On the one hand she would be a great asset to the Autobots, but on the other hand her processor might have been permanently damaged from everything that happened before she met Wheeljack. He just hoped he could heal whatever wounds were left.


End file.
